Nyon Police: Brigade structures, responsibilities and a canine task force!

Nyon's police force covers Nyon, Prangins and Crans. How are they structured and what are the typical interventions? And who are Buffy and Quenzi that form a brigade of their own?

Thank you very much to Laurence Dufour, in charge of communication at Nyon Police for answering the questions so openly and providing interesting insights into the workings of the local police!

The Police of the Nyon region's (PNR) general mission is to ensure the security, tranquility and maintenance of order in its territory. They ensure a continuous presence in the field, which revolves around traffic control (speed, vehicle compliance, traffic rules), management of problems related to incivility (noise pollution, littering, breaches of the Police Regulations, damage to property, etc.), and offenses committed in the territory (burglaries, theft, domestic violence, cybercrime, etc.). Due to the current pandemic, the police station regularly provides clarifications on the health measures implemented by the Canton and the Federation. When it comes to road development matters, the PNR has only an advisory opinion. This task is the responsibility of the "Service Travaux, environnement et mobilité" of the City of Nyon. The Nyon police force has six brigades. The brigades are made up of teams with highly complementary skills in terms of background, training, experience etc. This allows for combined knowledge and strengths that can be used when analysing a problem they may be faced with. The chefs of the brigade independently manage their brigade's performance and motivation. Operational decisions are taken by the head of the police.

The canine brigade - Meet Buffy and Quenzi The PNR has a canine brigade (called K9) made up of two dog handlers and two Belgian Shepard dogs, Buffy and Quenzi! This is a brigade affiliated with the Police-Secours division of the PNR. A police dog typically has a career of nine to ten years. Dogs specializing in the field of narcotics often continue to "work" even after their retirement. Their experience remains very useful to the police. Defense dogs differ from dogs specialized in narcotics. Defense dogs have missions such as searching for and neutralising fugitives or suspects. They also help search for people on the location of an offense, join in patrols and surveillance, and help search for objects or weapons. The drug dog, on the other hand, is trained to look for narcotics. The training lasts about a year and covers all drugs and their derivatives commonly found on the market. The dog is never in direct contact with drugs, it warns his handler when it detects the smell of narcotics by freezing at the location of the find. The dogs are also trained to find banknotes! These are closely linked to the trade in narcotic products.

A new police station is underway The construction notice for the new police station has been submitted to the Municipal Council. This will be determined at the start of 2021. The construction loan needs to be validated and a referendum period of 14 days held. Once this is done, the work can begin and last approximately 2 years. The new police station will be located next to the fire station, on the Route de Divonne. Police Nyon Région 24h/24h 10, place du Château 1260 Nyon Tél: 022 799 17 17 or 117 www.police-nyon-region.ch