A day in the life of a policeman in Les Halles, Paris

With its huge underground regional express station for commuter trains, the district of Les Halles, in the centre of Paris, represents one of the main entrance points to the city. Three hundred thousand people are in transit here every day. At the exit of the train station is the Forum des Halles, one of the largest shopping centres in France. Above ground, the pedestrian area is one of the most extensive in Europe. For a long time, the area had a reputation for being unsafe, but in the last few years the situation at Les Halles has improved, in particular because of the efficiency of the local police force. How does the police organise themselves in the face of their multiple tasks, which concern not only nuisances but also offences, and how does one react to different and often contradictory expectations from the residents, the shopkeepers and people who use the site ? How does Captain Joël Terry, who is in charge of the community police force for the sector of Les Halles, manage to motivate his team, whose average age is only twenty-three-and-a-half ?