For safety, cleanliness and peace

There seems to be no hurry. When Georges Mischo, CSV deputy and then as now mayor of Esch/Alzette, inquired this spring about the implementation of the law that extended the powers of municipal police officers, Minister for the Interior Taina Bofferding (LSAP) could only give the following figures: As of April 11, only two municipalities had amended their police regulations to include the newly introduced administrative sanctions and only one municipality had introduced a neighbourhood service (called "service de proximité").

The municipalities have thus taken their time – and presumably the municipal elections on June 11 have further delayed this process – to make use of the new legislative possibilities. Even though it is clear that the implementation of the law cannot be done quickly.

In Luxembourg, there are two groups of public order officers. The ones popularly known as "pecherten" are a comparatively recent phenomenon. At the beginning of the 1980s, the function of the so-called "agent municipal" was created to control the parking disc obligation introduced at that time and to ensure that parking spaces in the city centre, where many shops or administrations are located, are not permanently occupied.