As a sign of protest against the suspension of two local police in Vera by the Mayor (he claims they were in dereliction of duty, the local police say that they were an example used to frighten the rest of them into signing a new work contract) the entire local police force of Vera have voted to go onto minimum duties.
This means no overtime, no use of personal mobiles (as the official system has been broken for more then a month and they have had to use their personal mobiles to stay in touch), no patrolling in plain clothes or in a non official car, no single patrols, and best of all, no issuing of traffic fines “until the mayor gives them the promised materials to do so properly” (whatever that means).
They will also picket the front door of the town hall every week, which should be fun. Might go along myself.
They say that they will return to normal duties once the town hall repairs or puts into place the missing material and systems. The union CSI-CSIF, representing the locales, say that this has nothing to do with the renegotiation of contracts, which is continuing apace; the town hall says that this is a blatent attempt to blackmail the village and has threatened to sack or punish the whole force if they don’t get their act together.
Meanwhile, expect parking in Vera to get even worse.