Story of a policeman: « Arrived by chance, I stayed for love »

“Mario” is a young 55-year-old retiree, who was absolutely not predestined to make a career in the region, it was when he met Céline that he made this decision. He tells his story.

Tell us about your career at the police

I am from the Maritime Alps, my father was in the border police on the Italian border, my career in Lot-et-Garonne was absolutely not planned, at the start, I wanted to leave as soon as I could. Only, life decided otherwise. I did my training as gendarmes between May 88 and September 89 at the Montluçon school, then I was assigned to the Astaffort brigade on leaving training. A few months after my arrival, I met Céline, she was to become my wife and the mother of my children. From then on, there was no longer any question of leaving again and I made Lot-et-Garonne my new home. So I stayed in Astaffort for eight and a half years. Then I wanted a change, so I went to the Prayssas brigade where I stayed for thirteen years. I have excellent memories of it. In 2009 I was offered a place at the Operational Center of the Agen Gendarmerie, I was assigned there in April 2010 and until today.

What made you want to become a policeman?

In my family we had been in law enforcement for several generations. It is something that is passed down from father to son. It goes back to my great-grandfather. He was a customs officer, my paternal grandfather was a chief warrant officer of the gendarmerie and my father was a policeman. So naturally I followed in their footsteps. However, I had two daughters aged 27 and 29, who went their own way, and I’m just as delighted. But for me, this job was meant for me.

How did you end up at the operational center of the gendarmerie?

It was in 2009 that I was offered this position, after a position became available. All the same, I first spent twenty-one years in the field with my fellow brigadiers. We had to deal with all sorts of crimes or accidents. The operations center allowed me to discover a whole new job that I hadn’t necessarily intended for at the start.

Do you have more of it?

I’m fairly easy to contact and I loved being in the middle of the population and seeing people. That’s what I missed initially when I started in the operations center. Especially when I was in Prayssas, I could chat with people for an hour, but time was never wasted. The brigade was my life, I had chosen to do this job when I left school, unlike some of my comrades who had gone to the mobile gendarmerie to do law enforcement. The first three weeks I sometimes wondered what I was doing there, but I quickly understood the importance of my new position, in which I remained for twelve years. My schedules were certainly atypical, but I was able to have a certain peace of mind, which was not the case for my fellow brigadiers.

When you were at the operations centre, what were your tasks?

When someone dials 17, we take your calls. Someone who dials this number in the middle of downtown Agen, or Villeneuve-sur-Lot for example, will come across the police station. However in the rest of the department, and especially in the villages and countryside, you will find yourself with the gendarmerie at the end of the line. We receive approximately 90,000 calls per year. Which is no small feat. The calls are very varied, they can range from a lost or stranded cat, to a traffic accident, to an armed robbery or an assault. I was therefore in charge of handling the calls and sending the brigades on the interventions. My background as a brigadier was very useful to me since I knew the terrain and its difficulties. Despite everything, it remains a shadow job, in which we are constantly solicited. Mainly because we never know what will happen. It is entirely possible for something serious to happen at any time. And we are here to intervene.

If you had to name a moment that particularly marked you, what would it be?

I have had to deal in my career with all sorts of affairs. Ranging from the simple theft of a flowerpot in the cemetery, to the double murder, what struck me the most would undoubtedly be the latter. However, an anecdote that rather amused me was when I was in Prayssas, more than 15 years ago, an elderly lady wanted to file a complaint because her neighbor had installed a beehive at the edge of her garden. She had been stung by a bee, and absolutely wanted to file a complaint. After explaining to her that it wasn’t that important, I still had to take the complaint because she didn’t want to let go of the matter. I had to find out about the regulations for installing hives. However, I have not identified the culprit!