Despite the opposition in the ranks of the police, the Minister of the Interior intends to put in place the reform of the police by the end of the year.
Police reform will be well implemented by the end of the year, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday March 3 as anger has been brewing in the ranks of the judicial police since last summer. Gérald Darmanin therefore maintains the course despite the slingshot.
The Minister of the Interior sent a letter to the police on Friday morning to tell them that the reform would be in place by the end of the year. While a Senate report recommended a moratorium until the 2024 Olympic Games, to avoid a reorganization before the end of this crucial deadline.
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This reorganization comes down to the establishment of a single department per department to oversee all services: public security, territorial intelligence, border police (Paf) and judicial police (PJ). All under the authority of the prefect. The “PJistes” as they are called fear to be asked for other missions, to lose means and their freedom of investigation. But Gérald Darmanin is keen on this reform. The only concession announced on Friday, the departmental director will also be interdepartmental director for the PJ and the Paf. Nothing new under the sun for Yann Bauzin, president of the ANPJ, the national association of the judicial police, at the origin of the sling. “In the workforce, in the ranks, it’s disgust”, he said. There is nothing new in this proposal, according to him. “It is a grooming of the initial project that was proposed to us in June. At the time, we were talking only about interdepartmental investigation services of the national police. These are now interdepartmental directorates.
“Nothing has changed, no criticism has been heard, no proposal has been heard. This is a project that is going exactly as it was originally planned.”
Yann Bauzin, president of the ANPJat franceinfo
The original idea was to simplify the organization of the police by putting an end to the silos: the different sectors – public security, PJ, Paf, information – which worked side by side. There will now be a multitude of departmental, interdepartmental, zonal, national levels, an illustration of the French administrative mille-feuille.
Judicial police still angry
Little chance therefore that this announcement will manage to bring down the anger. Especially since in the detail of the new proposed map, some divisions are surprising to say the least because the interdepartmental directorates will not group together the same departments for the judicial police or the border police. Example: the Bouches-du-Rhône where the interdepartmental director will also oversee the Alpes de Haute-Provence and the Hautes-Alpes for the PJ but the Var and the Vaucluse for the Paf. Or in the North of France, the interdepartmental directors of Nord and Pas-de-Calais will have jurisdiction over the PJ in both departments, with the duplication or even the rivalries that one can imagine. Especially since the direction of the investigation is entrusted to the public prosecutor’s offices with yet another division at the national level.
But not enough to appease the police officers of the PJ. The police unions generally welcome a step forward, but not the police officers of the PJ. A figure circulates: 10 to 15% of “Pjistes” who have already requested a reorientation since the announcement of the reform.