Before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the hunt for clandestine taxis

“We’re already late for our flight!” exclaims a British tourist, when a group of plainclothes police, appearing out of nowhere, stops his clandestine taxi on the access ramp to the airport Parisian from Orly.

For this family who visited Disneyland Paris, their stay in France ended with an attraction of a different kind: the hunt for fake taxis by a specialized police unit, known as “Boers.”

Three months before the Olympic Games, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, clandestine taxis are one of the first challenges for the millions of spectators who will travel to Paris.

Despite the reinforcement of signage and warning calls against these unlicensed drivers, who can charge excessive rates, the phenomenon continues, as does the fight with the agents.

“We pose as passengers to spot anyone who doesn’t fit in. “At an airport you don’t wait for anyone for 5 or 6 hours,” Captain Patrice Desbleds, 47, explains to AFP.

In their offices at Orly airport, a group of “Boers” observes clandestine taxi drivers on a video surveillance screen. “This one knows my face by heart.”says an agent, pointing to an individual.

On this spring morning, a discreet device monitors the arrival of vehicles at France’s second largest airport, with plainclothes agents among the travelers.

In the middle of the traffic jam of vehicles trying to drop off their passengers in the departure area, the agents suddenly head towards a van with smoked windows and a Czech license plate.

Olympic provisions

As they put on a fluorescent orange bracelet “police”the agents force the van, which lacks the symbols of a taxi or a transport vehicle with a driver, to park to the side.

After inspecting their driver, they verify that he is a Georgian citizen who does not have a license, but neither does he have a driving permit or vehicle insurance.

Inside, British customers panic at the sight of the police. “It’s a nightmare”, whispers the mother of the family.

The driver had to charge 140 euros (US$150) for a trip of about 50 kilometers between Disneyland and Orly, a price on the high side of that normally proposed by legal carriers.

While the tourists run with their wheeled suitcases towards the airline counter, a police officer follows them to take their statements on a sheet of paper.

After a pat-down search and checking his documents, the officers stop the driver and take the resigned man to the police station in an unmarked police vehicle.

The sanctions are usually fines of between 800 and 1,500 euros (between US$855 and US$1,600), but can go up to a court appearance.

These types of devices lately usually result in fifty arrests per month, according to the police prefecture. Created in 1938, the passenger transport control unit, as it is officially known, employs about 90 plainclothes police officers.

Legend attributes his nickname to “Boers” to the Russians who fled the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Converted into coachmen in Paris, they did not know how to pronounce the word “bourre”police in the slang of the time.

During the Olympic Games, in addition to their presence at railway stations and airports, these police officers will also be present at the Olympic venues.

“We are going to maintain the experience of this unit (…) we have made provisions, we are adapting to the event,” states Captain Desbleds.

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