Right next to the Eastern entrance of Mathis Road lies the municipal police control center. It’s certainly not a bunker, but the Control Station seems to be there incognito. From this location, municipal police operations are coordinated.
Three different radio channels, screens to monitor the 186 cameras placed around the city of Nice, but also a strict and necessary office work to catalog all the interventions performed by the officers. Everything is recorded in the daily log.
Some may criticize, saying, “All these resources for just a municipal police?” The reply comes from Maurice: “Our powers have been extended; we now handle violations of the traffic code.”
It should be noted: the installation of these expensive cameras wasn’t done solely for the municipal police. The Traffic Regulation Center (CRT) uses them as well. The municipal police officers working at the Control Center stand behind the radios. They guide, direct, advise, and inform the officers in the field. The control screens are monitored during interventions at a filmed site.
“In three years, we’ve only caught one crime in the act through the cameras: armed men. We then alerted the security services to intervene. We use them during events or parades. We position a camera at the start and the end of the procession,” states Maurice.
This Control Center also has a mobile unit. It performs the same functions as the Control Center but is used during events like triathlons, with the aim of optimizing the capabilities of the Municipal Police.
This key site of municipal security also has the responsibility to alert all services (city hall but also schools, firefighters, or retirement homes) in case of pollution peaks. The list of functions is long, and for this reason, 17 agents are assigned here. There’s Maurice, Patrice, Alain, Nicole, Jean-Pierre, Marilyne the charming receptionist in charge of managing the impound lot, and the other eleven agents. They usually work in teams of five or six. Less is not enough to be effective, and more is too much… It’s just a matter of arithmetic!
From their control tower, the air traffic controllers of the Municipal Police can analyze offenses in Nice more effectively, especially during the summer season. “There aren’t necessarily more infractions in summer; we just notice that interventions are more concentrated in the downtown core and the beaches,” reveals Maurice.
Thus, when you take Mathis Road through the Eastern entrance, you will look differently at this building to the right of the tunnel. This place is a bastion, perhaps a secret (less so now) of the city of Nice.
Vincent Trinquat