In Lyon, the city hall will introduce a three-year "service commitment" for its municipal police officers.
(Info Lyon Cap) Municipal police officers trained by the City of Lyon will now commit to serving it for three years, failing which they will have to reimburse the costs incurred by the community for their training.
The idea had been in the pipeline for several months already. Recruitment, successive salary increases, ceremonies , cameras... despite his efforts, Lyon's Green mayor, Grégory Doucet, has failed to reach the target of 364 municipal police officers.
The mayor is just hoping to reach 300 municipal police officers this summer, a level at which the workforce was already at in 2020. So, to try to achieve his goal, the mayor and his deputies for security and human resources, Mohamed Chihi and Laurent Bosetti, have decided to implement a "commitment to serve." A measure permitted by a decree of December 30, 2021, establishing it for trainee officers recruited within a municipal police employment framework.
The resolution specifying this measure will be submitted to the municipal councilors for a vote on Thursday, June 26, during the council meeting. " Since the beginning of the mandate, 163 recruitments have been made, compared to 84 between 2016 and mid-2020 ," the town hall recalls in its preamble, while mentioning a difficult national context for the entire security sector. This measure should help combat windfall effects in a highly competitive market where local authorities must rely on bonuses and constant revaluations to retain their staff .
" The commitment to serve will require trainee agents recruited by the City of Lyon, whose initial training is supported by the latter, to serve within the latter's workforce for at least three years from the date of their appointment, " the authority explains. At the end of 2024, Mayor Grégory Doucet explained to our colleagues at Le Progrès that it was " legitimate to expect some form of return on investment ."
In the draft resolution, the executive recalls that such a measure comes " in addition to the numerous actions already adopted and to come to promote the attractiveness of (its) municipal police ." And to list: " Increase in remuneration, improvement of equipment (body cameras) and materials, improvement of premises, overhaul of the organization of work and work rotations with the implementation of the 4-day and 4.5-day week, communication. "
In the event of termination of the service commitment, the officer will be required to repay the sums paid during their initial training, as stipulated by law. This amount is nearly €40,000 for a municipal police director position. It is just over €10,000 for a police officer. It also decreases depending on the date on which the commitment is terminated.
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