The urban violence that occurred after the death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed by a police officer at the end of June in Nanterre during a traffic check, brought to light the fragility of the relationship between the police and the population, in particular young people. In some neighborhoods, initiatives continue to try to maintain it.
“Do you have a question to ask the prefect?” Standing on the first floor of a building in the Alain-Mimoun sports complex, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, Laurent Nunez stands ready to answer the 10 young people facing him, seated on wooden benches. One of them launches. “How did you get to your post?” he asks the prefect of police.
The latter made the trip, Monday, July 17, for the summer launch of the Republican Youth Days (JRJ), in which 90 children and adolescents, aged 7 to 17, participate, as well as some parents, from Paris and neighboring departments. . “I was not elected, I was appointed, by the President of the Republic”, replies the senior official. Other questions arise and the news bursts into the exchange. The urban violence that followed the death of Nahel, killed by a policeman during a road check on June 27, is still in everyone’s mind.
“Is it allowed to riot, after all? Finally, to be able to tell when you’re angry?”asks a teenager who lives in the 20th arrondissement of the capital, like two-thirds of young people enrolled in JRJ 75. “If it’s a demonstration, you have to declare it, say ‘We’re going to demonstrate on such and such a day’, explains Lawrence Nunez. But when you know that there is going to be violence, I can say ‘No, no demonstration’, as it happened… recently.” A third teenager intervenes:
“- If we demonstrate without authorization, can we be sanctioned?
– We can. But in general we tolerate.
The question of police violence comes up in the conversation.
“- If a policeman makes a mistake, what does he risk as a sanction?
– It depends on what you call blunder… He can be condemned, like any citizen. The police are very controlled”insists the prefect of police of Paris.
“It’s easier to talk in a tracksuit and on foot”
Theatre, road safety, introduction to first aid… Accompanied by Nicolas Nordman, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of prevention, safety and the municipal police, Laurent Nunez strolls through workshops led by police officers, or on their initiative. Thus, the Parlons Démocratie association was asked to organize a time for discussion around French institutions by Erick Duthoit, director of JRJ 75 since 2002. These years of experience allow him to know “all young people and their parents” without having any local antenna. “Registrations are done through word of mouth. Families pass on my mobile number”assures Erick Duthoit. “The objective is to maintain the link between the police and the population”argues the official, responsible for the prevention of delinquency.
This is also what Thierry Plotton tries to do on a daily basis. This brigadier-chief co-directs a youth leisure center (CLJ) of the national police, the equivalent of the JRJs outside Paris, in the Montreynaud district, in Saint-Etienne (Loire), with 9,000 inhabitants. Became a policeman at 20, “the neighborhood kid” accepted this position at age 33 and has never left it.
“Today, more than twenty years later, we are part of the furniture.”
Thierry Plotton, co-director of a national police youth recreation centerat franceinfo
The CLJ 42 has many outdoor and indoor facilities, including a games area with console and table football, a library and a room dedicated to road safety. So many spaces to carry out activities similar to those of the JRJs and the 30 CLJs located throughout France, three of which are only open in the summer. They are aimed at residents of priority urban policy districts (QPV), priority security zones (ZSP), and, since 2018, republican reconquest districts (QRR). “We operate as a youth center”summarizes Thierry Plotton, who exercises in civilian clothes, with sweatshirt and jogging flocked with CLJ logos. “It’s easier to talk in a tracksuit and on foot”, he specifies.
“We need to restore confidence in both directions”
While it had been preserved in 2005, the CLJ de la Loire was not spared by the rioters at the end of June. “A garbage can was set on fire in front of the entrance and the hall burned down”, reports Thierry Plotton. Warned in the middle of the night, he went there. “There was a crowd of parents and scandalized association actors. They started to give names. Usually, omerta reigns”he says. “I went to see the designated group to explain to them the stupidity of their act. I naively assume that it paid off, because there were no reprisals and the interior of the center was not looted”, believes Thierry Plotton. He explains having received dozens of messages of support, which encouraged him not to give up. “There are people who we will not be able to recover, like the perpetrators of these acts”he sighs.
These encouragements delighted Siham Labich, deputy mayor of Saint-Etienne, in charge of city policy, herself from the working-class district of Montreynaud. “The CLJ is a powerful link, which contributes to cohesion in the district”, she observes. The elected MoDem specifies that in addition to moral support, the city of Saint-Etienne provides funding, via an operating grant and free provision of premises. Enough to complete the benefit of annual memberships, set at 5 euros. Like other elected officials, in Laval (Mayenne) or Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne) for example, Siham Labich carries out his own actions to bring the police and young people closer together. And sometimes relies on other associations, which do not come from the police. “We need to restore confidence in both directions, from the young people to the police but also from the police to the young people”, underlines the assistant. In fact, according to an Ifop poll carried out after Nahel’s death, only 30% of 18-24 year olds say that the police inspire them with “trust”compared to 43% for the population as a whole.
Police “oriented towards conflict resolution”
The gap was not created overnight but gradually widened, especially with the end of community policing, as explained in 2017 by theformer commissioner initiator of this field police. Launched in 1998 under the government of Lionel Jospin, it was abolished in 2003 by Nicolas Sarkozy, at the time Minister of the Interior, who had mocked the social aspect of the mission of the police. Subsequently, initiatives emerged to rebuild and strengthen the police-population link. It is in this perspective that the function of delegate for police-population cohesion (DCPP) was born, in 2008, within the framework of Fadela Amara’s “Hope Suburbs” plan. This function was developed a second time, when the first ZSPs were created in 2012.
Eleven years later, these delegates are 238 in post, to which are added, in Paris, police officers specially assigned to missions of prevention, contact and listening (MPCE). The DCPPs are not practicing police officers, but retirees. These reservists work 10 days a month all year round. And not all of them have quite the same missions. Animate hotlines, maintain close contacts in the neighborhoods, carry out crime prevention operations… For example, Hubert, 62, who works in the Ondaine valley, west of Saint-Etienne, is “oriented towards conflict resolution”. When a handrail is deposited in a police station, he can seize it to try to find a solution. It is therefore defined as a “mediator”, but not only. Installed for four years, he acknowledges having “weathered the plasters at the start”before being able to be solicited in the street, directly, including by some young people.
“There is also the whole mental structure of the policeman who wakes up and recalls the law: it is an opportunity to say the law and to advise.”
Hubert, police-population cohesion delegate in the Loireat franceinfo
As with Thierry at CLJ, his appearance is crucial. “Our status excludes us from wearing a weapon and a uniform, we must always be in civilian clothes to build another relationship”, explains Hubert. But he can wave his professional card at any time: remembering who he works for is important. “I always displayed myself as a policeman, not as a secret agent”, abounds Serge Supersac, DCPP in Toulon (Var) for seven years. He has strong memories of his experience and claims to have given a lot of information to his colleagues in the judicial police. “We are at the crossroads of good and bad practices. Being too close is not okay, but neither is being too distant: you have to find the right level of the police-population relationship”summarizes the policeman.
“Simple local initiatives will not be enough”
If the balance is so difficult to find, it is because the function of delegate for police-population cohesion, “in a dialogue position”, is at “the periphery of the institution”observes Jacques de Maillard, professor of political science at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin and director of Cesdip. “Engaged staff initiatives exist but remain marginal in an institution that is struggling to promote grassroots initiatives”, completes the researcher, specialist in penal and security policies. What the police officers interviewed by franceinfo feel. “The population is in demand, but the hierarchy is reluctant to prevent because they believe it is a waste of time”notes Serge Supersac. “Some police officers don’t understand what we are doing. They tell us ‘You are playing and we are running after them’. It is up to us to explain what we are doing, to have strong shoulders”, considers Thierry Plotton, who recalls that prevention is part of the police profession.
An aspect that Laurent Nunez wanted to call back on Monday. “We get to know each other better, to understand that the police are there to protect,” he said during a brief speech at the conclusion of his trip to the 12th arrondissement of Paris against young people. For Jacques de Maillard, the key to a peaceful relationship between the police and the population is, precisely, in the hands of the institution. “The tension will not drop overnight but suppose that we manage to build a long-term relationship, a de-escalation. The challenge is to get out of a binary relationship with young people they do not like and who don’t like themhe judges. Simple local initiatives will not be enough, the matrix must be changed.” For their part, the young people, at first glance, expressed their enthusiasm after this somewhat artificial exchange, but in which the outstretched hands were seized.