Contrary to what the Minister of the Interior says, the use of firearms in the context of a refusal to comply has increased significantly since the entry into force of the law authorizing the police to shoot at a fleeing vehicle.
“Extremely shocking images.” These are the terms used by Gérald Darmanin, during questions to the government on Tuesday June 27, to describe the video showing the circumstances of the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a police officer in Nanterre on Tuesday morning after refusing to comply . But the Minister of the Interior then insisted on recalling at the microphone of the Assembly Chamber that “since the law of 2017 (…) there have been fewer shootings and fewer fatal cases than before 2017”. An assertion immediately denounced by the deputy LFI Manuel Bompard.
What the law says ? Has there really been a drop in the number of shootings, including fatal shootings, committed by police officers since the entry into force more than six years ago of this new legislative framework, as the Minister of the Interior ?
Fatal shootings multiplied by five after the reform
Asked by franceinfo to corroborate and support the words of Gérald Darmanin, the Ministry of the Interior, using data from the 2021 IGPN report (in PDF)reports a drop in the number of police shootings – fatal or not – on moving vehicles in recent years: 153 in 2020, 157 in 2021 and 138 in 2022 (see our infographic below). As for the number of fatal shootings in the context of refusal to comply, the ministry claims to be compiling the data.
Other, more precise statistics reflect a reality different from that described by Gérald Darmanin, on the number of fatal shots. In a summary published in 2022 in the journal of human sciences Mind, researchers Sébastian Roché (CNRS), Paul Le Derff (University of Lille) and Simon Varaine (University of Grenoble Alpes) observe five times more people killed by police fire targeting people in moving vehicles since February 28 2017, date of the promulgation of the law relating to public security. Between March 2017 and August 2022, the monthly number of deaths after shooting at a vehicle was 0.32, compared to 0.06 between September 2011 and February 2017. A finding based on data from the IGPN and a census made by the online media Basta!.
What about the overall number of shots (fatal and non-fatal) on moving vehicles? Between 2017 and 2022, 967 shots were recorded (i.e. 161 on average per year) against 596 for the period 2012-2016 (i.e. 119 on average per year), according to the IGPN. That’s a 35% increase. In detail, police figures even show a jump of 47% in 2017 compared to 2016. Gérald Darmanin’s assertion was therefore unfounded.
A law that relaxes the use of firearms for the police
According to Fabien Jobard, CNRS research director assigned to the Center for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions (Cesdip), the February 2017 reform is “came to confuse very clear texts” on self-defense. Before 2017, police officers were subject to the principle of self-defense provided for in the Criminal Code, like any citizen. The agent could not “use your weapon only to save your own life and the life of others, if there was a present and immediate danger, if you were immediately threatened”pointed the researcher to franceinfo last year.
Article 453-1 of the Internal Security Code (CSI) relaxes the conditions under which the police are authorized to open fire, by introducing a notion of anticipation judged “complicated” by the political scientist. The text provides that the police can shoot if they refuse to comply, if they cannot stop the vehicle other than by doing so and if, while fleeing, the driver is “likely to perpetrate (…) attacks on their life or physical integrity or those of others”.
This relaxation of the law “explains the considerable increase in police shootings, particularly in refusals to comply”, analyzes Fabien Jobard. A “vague” legal also decried by Sébastian Roché last September. “Basically, a policeman can shoot if, in a second, he is able to assess the future dangerousness of a person’s behavior, which is impossible to do”lamented the sociologist to franceinfo.
Sharp increase in refusals to comply
However, legislation is not the only factor explaining the increase in police shootings. “There is an increase in refusals to comply, driving violations, insurance defaults… You have more people who are likely to flee, who will not have an interest in stopping”explains to franceinfo Mathieu Zagrodzki, associate researcher at Cesdip and public safety specialist. In 2021, the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory (Onisr) counted 27,206 refusals to comply, as well as 5,247 dangerous refusals to comply (“exposing others to the risk of death or injury”). That is respective increases of 19.4% and 51.7% compared to 2017.
In addition to the behavior of recalcitrant civilians, there are police checks: “In recent years, there has been an insistence [des forces de l’ordre] on the fact of carrying out checks, on narcotics screening. However, mechanically, the more you increase the controls, the more you increase the risk of refusing to comply”, he analyzes.
Faced with such situations, are the police sufficiently trained? The Court of Auditors noted in a 2018 report (in PDF) that, while 97% of the gendarmes had completed their shooting training during the year, this was only the case for half of the police officers. This lack of training worries criminal lawyer Laurent Franck-Liénard, interviewed by France 2: “We give the police a lethal weapon, we give them a tool that will cause death, we don’t train them psychologically, we don’t train them tactically”.