TCL - Lyon's Finest, Keeping the Buses Void of Freeloaders

The TCL personnel who check the validity of people's bus tickets and coupons jumped on my bus not once, but twice today. In the morning, on my way to school, two guys sat down in a crowded bus without validating or purchasing a ticket, and found themselves hemmed in by other passengers and with no way to escape the ticket-checkers. Caught red-handed, the TCL staff asked them to hand over their identity cards and made them sign a citation which they will have to pay at the TCL office within two week's time (I think.) Forty Euros! That hurts, when the price of a normal ticket is only 1,20 EUR each in a book of ten.

I don't know why the staff was out today, but perhaps it's the end of the month and they have a certain quota to fill. On my way out to run some errands, there they appeared, suddenly, swooping in and leaving without so much as a word.

I wonder if they hire police cadets or former policeman to help them do this work. It's thankless, and I assume they have their fair share of physical resistance.