“The judicial police reform project threatens the effectiveness of investigations and the independence of justice”

VSFive thousand investigators and support staff from the judicial police (PJ) work daily to elucidate the crimes and offenses that most seriously undermine our social pact (murders in organized gangs, armed robberies, trafficking in human beings, corruption, tax evasion, massive scams, serial rapes, trafficking in pedophile images, drug or arms trafficking, etc.), under the direction and control of public prosecutors or investigating judges.

At the same time, the public security police services, placed under the authority of a departmental director of public security (DDSP), deal with petty and medium crime, cases that are often simple and can be dealt with more quickly: theft, violence, drug use, etc.

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More than a century has passed since the creation of the Tiger brigades (ancestors of the PJ), but the need to have a specialized police force, freed from the territorial limits of the departments and having a budget and manpower sanctuaries, is stronger than ever in the face of criminal networks that are not encumbered by any borders.

The Minister of the Interior is however preparing to return to a departmentalization of the judicial police from 2023, by unifying the command of the various police services (judicial police, border police, public security, intelligence) under the authority a departmental director of the national police (DDPN), called upon to become the sole interlocutor of the prefect on matters relating to internal security.

Behind this reform, presented as a simple reorganization, however, are concealed major changes that undermine the effectiveness of investigations and the independence of justice.

fearsome weapon

It will first allow the absorption of the PJ by public security and will sacrifice a sector of excellence on the altar of the mass treatment of everyday delinquency. The DDPN could indeed be encouraged to direct the means of the PJ according to opportunistic criteria: missions ensuring better statistical returns, requirements of elected officials, reduction of mass litigation. It is to favor the arrest of the small trafficker, quickly replaced, rather than the dismantling of the networks, or the street vendor rather than those who exploit him. It is the choice to fight against the feeling of insecurity, and not against insecurity itself. Above all, it is a fatal blow to the fight against economic and financial crime, which is already in such bad shape.

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