France aim for zero crime at Paris Games

PARIS. —French police are now carrying out “one operation per day and per department” to achieve a “zero-delinquency plan” by the time of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

Speaking on France Radio as guest of the 8:30 am franceinfo show, Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez — who took over in July after the disastrous staging in the French capital of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool — responded to questions on the Paris 2024 by revealing details of the operation. “The Minister of the Interior has asked us, from now on, around these sites of the Olympics, to carry out very firm actions against delinquency,” Nuñez said.

Adding that the instructions were known as the “zero-delinquency plan”, Nuñez went on to say that in the next year and a half his officers will carry out “one operation per day and per department: to fight against delinquency, the illegal occupation of public space, street sales and drug trafficking.

“So we are, during the Games, on zero crime.” In order to bring this about, Nuñez said, his department would be benefiting from “1,000 additional jobs” which will be assigned to crime-fighting operations.

To avoid malicious acts during the 2024 Olympic Games, Nuñez explained, the Paris police headquarters would create “protective perimeters”. During the Opening Ceremony these would be on banks of the Seine, but they would also be in place at “all sites”, and access would be denied to “those who refuse to be searched”. During the Opening Ceremony, Nuñez estimated, “35 000 people will be mobilised”, a figure that did not count the few thousand security agents who will also be present.

For other events at the Games “between 12 000 and 45 000 people will be mobilised”.