Since 2013, the whole of France[1] has held security meetings which facilitate dialogue between citizens and services which provide security. The police, the “gendarmerie”, the fire service, the prefecture, civil protection and road safety services, and all actors who contribute to security present their professions, the materials they use, work techniques and the prerequisites of candidates to enter such professions.
These workshops mobilise almost 300,000 people and provide an excellent occasion for information exchanges and also for the general public to commit to its own security and that of its environment. It is an opportunity to better understand the mission of security services and to discover these professions. At the same time, it gives the general public the ability to more competently prevent everyday dangers (crime, traffic and domestic accidents, etc) as well as improve their reaction when exceptional situations have occurred.
This year, the general public will have attended a range of demonstrations and will have participated in some of them (exercises coordinated between different services, freeing of vehicles, life-saving activities…).
For instance, this year’s programme[2] in the municipality of Aube[3]has involved the participation of different actors like the departmental direction of public security, the Prefecture, the Gendarmerie, the Red Cross, the White Cross and the departmental association of Civil Defence among others to apply prevention to road safety among school children and the senior population, demonstrations of first aid and the presentation of materials and vehicles. Activities have taken place in a range of venues: schools, the public space, lecture rooms, the premises of the gendarmeries or the fire station.
Security workshops have become an interesting practice because they favour the creation of a “security community” where different actors interact and where knowledge and mutual collaboration are enhanced. The benefits of such good practices would appear to be undeniable.
Useful links:
https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Rencontres-de-la-securite-2017
http://aube.gouv.fr/Actualites/Rencontres-de-la-securite-2017#
[1] Metropolitan France and overseas territories.
[2] Consultable at http://aube.gouv.fr/content/download/14744/101259/file/Programme-Rencontres%20de%20la%20sécurité%20%202017.pdf
[3] Municipality situated in the north east of France, within the department of La Moselle and in the region of AlsaceChampagne-ArdenneLorraine.
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