• The gendarmes of the Aisne published a Facebook post to denounce motorists who report their presence.
  • They point out that this "tradition" allows offenders to escape control.
  • A rant that comes a week after the tragedy of the road that cost the lives of three police officers near Lille.

"But why fight against road insecurity?" the gendarmes of the Aisne ironically ask themselves on their Facebook page. During the long weekend of Pentecost, the police have the habit of multiplying road checks. Because this period is conducive to massive population displacements and extended aperitifs at Tata Jeannine, the gendarmes are on the chopping block. But so did motorists, signaling the slightest blue polo shirt seen on the side of the road. Even more than Waze, it is the calls of lighthouses that exasperate the military, and they did not hesitate to say so.

Who remembers this Road Safety communication campaign in which a child abductor could be seen escaping the police after other motorists called him headlights? It is a reminder on this issue that the gendarmes of the Aisne have published on Facebook. "Do you know what this device is for? Offenders love it," the gendarmes asked about their portable speed camera. "It is a powerful laser allowing law enforcement to trigger the headlights of your cars remotely and for several kilometers, in both directions of traffic!" they continue with humor.

"Accidents only happen to others"

Except that the humor stops there and, without repeating the dramatic codes of the Road Safety communication campaign, they recall that "burglars, drug traffickers, drunk drivers and / or under the influence of narcotics", appreciate even more than the good father to be warned in this way. A boon that allows them to "avoid checkpoints", with all the risks that this implies for other users.


"But why fight against road safety," they add, since "accidents only happen to others". A rant that comes a little more than a week after three police officers were killed in Villeneuve-d'Ascq by an alcoholic driver. A tragedy that, obviously, was not enough to change behavior. Fallen into disuse with the appearance of mobile applications such as Waze, this "tradition" of calling headlights could regain strength if the anti-reporting bill were to come into force. Also known as the "Harry Potter system", this law plans to prevent the reporting of police checks and, therefore, to disappear from these applications.

  • Society
  • Hauts-de-France
  • Picardy
  • Control
  • Gendarmerie
  • Radar
  • Road safety