In Brussels, the consumption of narcotics in metro stations has seen a spectacular increase between 2021 and 2022. As Walloon MP Mourad Sahli reports in a written question to the Minister for Mobility Philippe Henry, the number of drug reports rose by 70%, a phenomenon linked to the explosion of the crack market in the capital, according to spokesman for the Charleroi police zone David Quinaux.
What is the situation with public transport in Charleroi? We do not have precise figures on the phenomenon. At most, we know, as the Minister indicates, that the police carried out 1,052 interventions last year, that is to say about twenty per week throughout the territory.
“In the subway, punch actions are carried out at regular intervalssays David Quinaux. They bring together police officers with TEC controllers and security agents, on average once a month. In this context, trains are stopped in the station, controls are carried out with closed doors.
Last month’s operation mobilized 15 police officers from the Public Order Security Peloton (PSO), a federal police police van, two dog handlers from the Châtelet area, one of whom specializes in drug detection. “At first, the stup dog identifies suspects in the train, they are then dismissed and searched. Checks were carried out at the Piges, Janson and Palais stations. They found nine travelers in possession of drugs, to arrest one who was the subject in the opinion of investigation for acts of morals, and to verbalize 175 others who circulated without a ticket. This represents nearly 10% of the users checked, numbering 1,838.
Under the terms of a TEC-Police cooperation agreement, images captured by surveillance cameras are regularly exchanged and examined in real time, in order to guide the intervention teams. “To improve the sense of security of its customers, the TEC Charleroi will launch a security audit in the coming months”, confides the commercial director in charge of communication Véronique Benoît. Purpose: to identify the most anxiety-provoking and insecure places in the metro network for travellers. “The aim is to improve perception and optimize the organization of security teams in the field.she says. The special specifications will only leave. The desire is to award the contract before the end of 2023″.