After an investigation by the IGPN, this police officer is summoned to appear before the Pontoise court on Wednesday for “failure to provide assistance”.
The conversation starts on July 31, 2022, at 8:08 p.m. Ophélie calls 17 to report that her ex-spouse is in front of her home, in Osny (Val-d’Oise), and is threatening to kill her. At the other end of the line, a policeman does not seem to take the call seriously. “He said he’s going to kill me and everything”this 31-year-old woman panics on the phone. “No”replies the official, whose ironic tone we can guess from reading the transcript, which franceinfo was able to consult. “Yes Yes”insists Ophelia. “Oh”exclaims the peacekeeper.
As the victim throws at the man who threatens her at the bottom of her building “Don’t start shouting my name downstairs, don’t break your balls Issa”the professional lets go, before hanging up: “And you talk bad shit. Athen you surprise me that he threatens you. And remember more, get away with it.” This 48-year-old police officer is summoned to appear on Wednesday March 8 before the Pontoise criminal court for “failure to provide assistance”, franceinfo learned from the court’s prosecutor’s office.
“‘Shut up big shit’, that would surprise me”
The day after the call to 17, on August 1, Ophelia was severely beaten by this former companion when leaving her home. It was his 12-year-old daughter who called the police. “He came and he got out of the car, he took a bat and he hit my mother, he punched and kicked her. He tried to crush her”she describes, terrified, according to the transcript report. This time, a patrol will be sent to the scene. For this attempted homicide by an ex-partner with a weapon and in front of a minor, Issa B. was sentenced in November 2022 to four years in prison, including one year suspended on probation. He was immediately imprisoned.
After the first telephone exchange, on July 31, Ophélie called back on the 17th, an hour and a half later. She fell on an interlocutor who seemed more understanding. In reality, it was the same policeman, who pretended to ignore the previous scene. While Ophélie complains of having been insulted and being hung up on, he replies: “Ah, he insulted you? (…) ‘Shut up big shit’, that would surprise me.”
After lecturing her on the handrail she had filed against her ex-boyfriend in the past, explaining that “It’s no use”he grows impatient: “Yeah well, you go to the police station, you file a complaint against your friend who is harassing you there, okay? (…) That’s it.” And “for the policeman, I don’t know, send a letter too”he sweeps.
“I had a moment of bewilderment”
“I don’t want to tell her it’s me because we were going to go back to this subject and I had to inform her about the procedures for violence”, justified the official, on January 3, according to the minutes of his hearing at the IGPN, to which franceinfo was able to have access. The police officer was heard as part of the preliminary investigation for failure to assist a person in danger, opened at the request of the Pontoise prosecutor’s office, which culminated in Wednesday’s hearing. During this hearing, he explains on many occasions that he did not take Ophélie’s call seriously. “I immediately categorized this call as fanciful”he explains. “I had the impression that she was talking with a smile”he argues. “A woman in danger is generally not aggressive with the individual threatening her.”
The policeman also expresses regrets. He recongnizes “having spoken badly to the lady”demonstrates “rudeness” and did not answer “properly”, always according to the hearing report. “I had a moment of bewilderment and I let myself go verbally against her”says the official, who says to himself “jaded” and to have “fed up with this job”. It thus justifies the “ironical tone” which he adopted and which he still uses during his hearing at the IGPN.
“He gives little advice like a lesson. My client, she doesn’t call for that, she calls for someone to come and protect her”, laments Pauline Rongier, Ophélie’s lawyer. According to her, the policeman’s attitude “clearly a direct link to what happened” to his client, “in addition to the extremely serious impact for a woman victim of violence, to be received like this”. The lawyer points out that “the appropriate reaction” would have been to send a patrol there. But for the policeman, “there was no matter” to that.
Training at the heart of a second survey
In this case, a second administrative investigation, opened in October for “breach of the duty to set an example, breach of the obligation of courtesy towards the public, breach of the obligation of discernment”, is still in progress at the IGPN, according to our information. On November 22, this official, in office for twenty years, was heard before a disciplinary committee of Val-d’Oise. He has been suspended since September 1 from the appeals of the 17th, but not from his duties at the night brigade information and command center, where he is a radio operator. Asked, the police of the fonts did not wish to comment on this subject.
During the investigation, the police officer also stated that he had not been trained to receive this type of call, but “sensitized only to the police academy”. Asked about any instructions he may have received when a call concerns “attacks on women”he replies that“there is no obligation” To “read” memos.
“You don’t need to be trained to know that you don’t attack a victim who asks for help”opposes Pauline Rongier, evoking the “trauma” of his client. His daughter, who witnessed the violence the day after the call and who dialed 17, is being psychologically monitored. “She thought her mother was going to die.”
“It’s surprising, given all the police training deployed on this subject, that we are still there.”
Pauline Rongier, lawyerat franceinfo
Ophélie’s lawyer points out the fact that despite “State of high alert on violence against women”this case “is not an isolated case”. “In this file, we have the transcripts of the police officer’s remarks. But I am thinking of all the clients who explain that they were badly received at the police station and where we have no proof”, notes Pauline Rongier. Failure to provide assistance is punishable by the Penal Code with five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.