Who in Nice has never complained about garbage bags lying on the sidewalk, bulky items left in front of a building entry for days on end, or a neighbor playing music a bit too loudly late at night? To address these minor annoyances that collectively pose a real issue, an “environmental” brigade was established within the municipal police, initiated by the Mayor, a year and a half ago.
“A lot of cleaning up has been done in Nice, even in the most private places, like luxury hotels. Before, there was more neglect,” tells us Gilbert Douhet, a member of the environmental brigade and a municipal police agent for over twenty years. Indeed, a luxury establishment can have as many stars as it wants, but if it does not have a sufficient number of containers to store its trash, it is not up to standards…
To track down incivilities, the environmental brigade (composed of thirteen agents), works in collaboration with the CANCA garbage collection services. “When they notice an illegal dump of garbage, the collection services take a photo of it, and try to collect evidence from inside: letters, addresses, names…”, explains Gilbert Douhet. “When these documents reach our department, we visit the person implicated, and we do prevention, or issue fines in case of repeat offenses.” This type of intervention occurs on average about ten times a day. “We are not here to hammer people but to do prevention and to serve the public. We have no quotas to meet, just a requirement to deliver results.”
Noise, Another Scourge
Old Nice is particularly targeted by the service. “It’s an area where sanitation issues are significant, and there are many pubs and nightclubs, which cause noise problems.” Because the environmental brigade also measures the frequency and intensity of noise, using a sound meter. It ensures that the city’s fifty-four night venues do not exceed the allowed 105 decibels. “Since the creation of the brigade, many bars and restaurants have undergone major work to limit their noise pollution, which is a very good point.”
Beyond these two scourges, this recent service of the municipal police hunts down tampered exhaust pipes, subwoofers in car trunks, burning outside of permitted seasons, dog droppings, and free-roaming pest animals. Small things that improve the day-to-day life of the people of Nice every day.
Nicolas Pelazza