Four deaths in less than four months. Several refusals to comply during a roadside check have recently had dramatic outcomes, such as the death of a 21-year-old young woman shot and killed on Saturday June 4 during a check in the 18th arrondissement in Paris. The three police officers who fired at the vehicle as it sped towards them, according to their version reported to franceinfo by a police sourcecame out of police custody without being the subject of legal proceedings for the moment.
In each case, a statistic is put forward by the police unions: the police are, according to them, exposed to a refusal to comply “all the 20 minutes” in France. This figure had been stated himself by the Minister of the Interior before the Senate more than a year ago, in January 2021. Gérald Darmanin had then underlined that a refusal to comply was recorded “every 20 minutes in the gendarmerie zone” and “every 30 minutes in the police zone”. Does the tenant of Place Beauvau say true or fake?
The reports of the National Interministerial Observatory of Road Safety (Onsir) do not, a priori, not lie this statistic. In 2021, 27,756 refusals to comply (14,256 for the police, 13,500 for the gendarmerie) were recorded, according to figures cited by AFP. That is one fact every 18 minutes. In 2020, the confinements linked to the Covid-19 pandemic did not curb this type of offence, which numbered 33,101, compared to 29,098 in 2019.
But what exactly do these numbers mean? The Onsir count is carried out each year using data from the Ministry of the Interior, police and gendarmerie combined, and the Ministry of Justice. Different types of offenses are listed in the category “refusal and hindrance”. Among them, the “refusal, by the driver, to obey a summons to stop” is the most frequent, with 26,589 cases noted by the police in 2020 and 22,817 in 2019. We remain in the range of 20 to 30 minutes.
But the “refusal, by the driver, to obey a summons to stop in circumstances exposing to a risk of death or injury” is much less observed.. Since the law on public security of February 28, 2017, he can justify the use of armed force. Some 3,000 to 4,000 cases have been recorded over the past six years, with a peak in 2020 at 4,543. That is one every two hours or so.
In addition, a significant proportion of these refusals to comply are the subject of a classification without follow-up by the prosecution. Since 2016, only a third of the procedures have resulted in a final conviction, recorded in the criminal record. The penalties provided for were however increased in 2017. The person incurs a loss of six points on his license, a fine of 7,500 euros and up to one year in prison.
If these refusals to comply represent approximately 5% of traffic offenses – against 26% for hit-and-runs, the most numerous disputes – they are constantly increasing. According to figures compiled by Onsir, the increase is 46.6% between 2010 and 2019. For lawyer Arié Alimi, customary in this type of case, the introduction of the penalty points license in the 1990s, is no stranger to it.
“These people who no longer have their license and who must continue to drive, if only to work, I have seen a number of them as a lawyer.”
Arie Alimi, lawyerat franceinfo
A year after the introduction of the points permit, in 1993, the number of refusals to comply rose to 1,099. Twenty years later, this figure has almost multiplied by thirty. Admittedly, the French population has gained 8 million inhabitants in the meantime. The number of drivers on the roads is therefore logically higher. In 2020, driver’s license defects accounted for 20.1% of offenses, the second reason.
Added to this is another variable: the overall increase in the number of checks. In details, those for drug screening exploded. They rose from 67,625 in 2010 to 453,751 in 2021. The deployment of the saliva test, which has facilitated the control of cannabis use while driving, may explain this increase.
Another factor that can push some motorists not to submit to a police check: the lack of insurance. Even if this offense is on the decline in recorded offenses (-17% since 2010), nearly 30,000 people were victims in 2020 of a road accident caused by a driver in default of insurance, according to the Fund Guarantee for Victims (FGAO).
The police unions, them, above all interpret the increase in refusals to comply as a change in the relationship between the forces of order and the population. Thierry Clair, deputy secretary general of the Unsa-police union, thus denounces “the lack of respect for the institution and the police” and “legal action which is not dissuasive”.
“The problem is the relationship that people have with authority. Today, we are freed from many rules, we no longer respect much.”
Loïc Lecouplier, representative of the Alliance police unionat franceinfo
There remains the question of the police reaction. For the representatives of the profession, the increase in refusals to comply generates proportionally more risks of“dramatic issues” if “the individual is threatening” and that he “use your car as a weapon”. A scenario that then falls within the scope of self-defense.
The argument is swept away by the sociologist Fabien Jobard, director of research at the CNRS, invited to franceinfo on Tuesday. He recalls that, since the application of the law of 2017, the shootings of the police have increased by 50%, according to an internal note from the IGPN, the police force. Historically, the use of the weapon had to be “absolutely necessary, strictly necessary and absolutely proportional to the dangers involved”he explains.
For Sebastian Roché, sociologist specializing in criminology and security issues, “the unions are trying to steer the debate towards refusals to comply” but “the real debate is the need for force and controls. The right to life is the first of the rights, as codified by the UN”. A way of recalling that behind the exact statistics put forward by Gérald Darmanin, the issue of the use of weapons by the police is more complex.