Topic: Oddities
"We're tall on our blades, and very fast." Odd news from Paris ...

Paris police battle crime on rollerblades
Reuters, Sun Nov 23, 2:53 PM ET (this link will take you to a photograph of an actual arrest)

By Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS - The shoplifter screams in shock as three towering French policemen speed towards him, grab his arms and legs, lift him up and drag him away -- on rollerblades.

Within seconds, rollerblading officer Stephane Ajuelos has handcuffed a colleague posing as a thief.

This is all part of the training programme for the Paris police's latest weapon in the fight against crime -- a 50-strong rollerblading police squad.
"Criminals are totally taken aback," said Ajuelos. "Some don't even try to run away when they see us. We're tall on our blades, and very fast. They know they don't have a chance to escape."

Aujuelos, 29, is one of 50 officers who have passed the tough entry test to join Paris's rollerblading police squad.

Officers on rollerblades have been spotted in places like Amsterdam, London, Miami Beach and Stockholm, but they can't beat the French capital's speedy force, said the unit's creator Marc Bella, a 42-year-old former speed-skating champion.

The unit initially numbered eight and its main job was to monitor the weekly processions of rollerbladers, which can number in the thousands, through the streets of Paris.

Today, the officers patrol the streets, teach schoolchildren traffic rules and help fight crime.
"Each week, we catch at least one criminal on our skates," said officer Pascal Fubini, recalling how his team caught a mobile phone thief on the busy streets.

"Someone was shouting 'Catch the thief!', and we were racing after him, passing people on the pavement, and going in between cars. We had the guy within seconds. It would have been much harder on foot or with a bike. We are extremely mobile."

ELITE TEAM

Competition to get onto the team is tough: applicants must pass demanding fitness tests and convince the unit's trainers of their rollerblading skills. About a dozen of some 40 candidates are taken on each year.

"I only want the best," said Bella. "It's a proper elite team."

Jerome Leclerc, 28, passed the entry test three years ago. He had to skate downhill at full speed, perform an emergency stop and rush down a staircase while being timed by a trainer.

"It was hard. They set the bar very high," he said.
He and his colleagues, almost all male, have one full exercise day each week, when they skate and run several miles, lift weights and practise how to overwhelm criminals on blades.

"It's the same technique as if you were wearing normal shoes. Balancing is the main challenge," Ajuelos said.

"One difference is that you can't carry someone away while skating. Another officer has to push you forward on your blades. Firing a weapon while on skates is also very tricky. I've never done it except in training."

TOUGH-GUY IMAGE

The rollerblading officers, who patrol the streets of Paris in blue uniforms, wearing knee and elbow pads and crash helmets, provoke mixed reactions among Parisians.

"It makes the officers seem more young and fun," said Alain Croullebois, 37, adding that French police in general have become much stricter since the government made it easier for officers to hand out fines.

"The blades can help polish their tough-guy image," he said.

France's centre-right government came to power with a "law and order" election pledge in 2002 and has launched tough new crime prevention initiatives.

Officer Michel Ghesquiere, who traded in his motorcycle for rollerblades a few months ago, said he believed the skates had not undermined his authority.

"You don't have the same reputation as an officer on a motorbike, but it's a very positive image too. When we go to rough Parisian suburbs, the young guys really respect us when they see that we're as good on our blades as they are."