“This police reform, no one had the courage to do it.” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin defends the reform of the judicial police (PJ), which he presents as “courageous, indispensable and difficult”. He speaks in an interview with Parisian (article for subscribers), published Sunday, October 9, two days after the indignation aroused by the dismissal of the boss of the southern zone of the PJ. Reform “shakes up habits and it is normal that it arouses disputes” but “certain limits must not be crossed”adds the Minister.
The reform project plans to place all police services at department level – intelligence, public security, border police (PAF) and judicial police – under the authority of a single Departmental Director of the National Police (DDPN ), depending on the prefect. Opponents of the project denounce the risk of a “leveling down” of the PJ and a reinforcement of the weight of the prefect in the investigations.
Thursday, the Director General of the National Police (DGPN) Frédéric Veaux, who came to Marseille to present his reform, had to go through a “hedge of dishonor” formed by some 200 investigators opposed to the project. The next day, Eric Arella, respected boss of the PJ in the south of France, was sacked. “The general manager has the choice of his collaborators. The bond of trust between them was broken”, says the minister in The Parisianwithout further comment on this eviction.
On the merits of the reform, the Minister does not initiate change, but repeats that“no PJ policeman will do anything other than what he was doing today”. There won’t be “no abolition of staff, no abolition of central office, no abolition of service or local branch”adds Gérald Darmanin, assuring that this decision is a “amendment of the DGPN project”.
As he said on Friday before the union of internal security executives (SCSI), the minister explained that he had “ordered an audit”with which the General Inspectorate of Justice must be associated and which “will be returned mid-December”. “We will discuss from there with the trade unions to amend the reform according to the remarks for an implementation in 2023”, adds Gérald Darmanin, without giving a more precise date.