French town to get drive-through police station

Police in the south of France have announced plans to open a drive-through police station. In a first of its kind initiative for France, crime-spotting locals in Le Cannet will soon be able to report a burglary as easily as they can pick up a burger at McDonald's.



"Initially, this was created primarily for disabled people," Alain Cherqui, head of security and delinquency prevention in the town said. Drivers in the town will be able to pull up their cars up to a three-metre long window and interact with an officer seated behind a hatch. At night, motorists will be able to park by the hatch and speak to a police officer through an intercom system.

While le drive, as it's called in French, is mainly intended for people with disabilities, in practice anyone will be able to conduct their dealings with the police from the comfort of their vehicles. Cherqui predicts that this ease of access to will result in the police gathering more information and solving more crimes in the Riviera town of of 42,000 people.


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Patrick Lefèvre, a spokesman for the national union of municipal police said he also welcomed the arrival of the kind of hatch more often used to order French fries. He noted that it would be particularly useful on the Riviera, where residents are such keen motorists that they are reputed to "drive right into bakeries in their cars to buy the bread." Local police have not yet set an exact date for the opening of the innovative station.