The agents of the Judicial Police organized new rallies against the project of the Minister of the Interior, judging the modifications made to the initial version purely “cosmetic”.
New gatherings of investigators took place on March 6, all over France, in order to denounce the project to reform the judicial police and the “cosmetic” amendments presented by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
In Versailles (Yvelines), around fifty police officers gathered at midday at the call of the National Association of Judicial Police (ANPJ) in front of the premises of the SRPJ, carrying signs “Yes to the moratorium, no to stubbornness”.
In Marseille, one of the strongholds of the protest, several dozen demonstrators were present. A rally attended by dozens of police officers was also held in Montpellier (Hérault) in front of the police station, displaying signs “Save the investigation” or even “Democracy in danger”.
About forty police officers also expressed their opposition to the reform in front of the Rouen police station (Seine-Maritime) reports a journalist from the 76actu site.
“It is the toughest reform project that will apply, the one planned since last summer, against which we are fighting”, denounced Stéfanie Duchâtel, secretary general of the ANPJ created against the project. “Apart from a vague change in didactics, no concession has been made in the face of the expectations and fears of the investigators of the judicial police”, she regretted.
The police demand an audience with Macron
“We hope to be heard by bodies that go beyond the minister,” added an investigator specializing in economic and financial matters, who requested anonymity. The ANPJ plans to seek an audience with President Emmanuel Macron, qualified in a communiqué as “the only possible interlocutor to arbitrate a crisis which engages the security of citizens and the responsibility of the State”.
In a letter sent to PJ staff on March 3, Gérald Darmanin rejected the Senate’s proposal to postpone the implementation of the reform after the 2024 Olympic Games and confirmed its entry into force from the end of 2023. He does not has not given up on the establishment of a departmental director of the national police (DDPN), dependent on the prefect, who will have authority over all the police services of a department: intelligence, public security, border police ( PAF) and PJ.
However, the minister announced the creation of a post of interdepartmental director of the national police (DIPN) with authority over the PJ and the PAF in certain departments. In the others, it is the DDPNs who will have authority over the PJ.
It is a “forceful passage” by Gérald Darmanin who “stamped the nail” by conceding only “cosmetic measures”, estimated with AFP a representative of the ANPJ in Lille, where a fifty investigators mobilized under posters “No to the DIPN”.
“There are departments in which there will no longer be independent PJs, it’s mind-boggling. It’s not as if there were no corruption or mafia networks in the Alpes-Maritimes or the Var”, denounced Thomas, spokesperson for the local ANPJ, in reaction to the map on the articulation of DIPNs and DDPNs released on 3 March.
During previous rallies organized in October, the director general of the national police Frédéric Veaux had been able to measure the degree of dissatisfaction aroused by the reform when he came to Marseille. He then had to cross a “hedge of dishonor” made up of 200 investigators opposed to the project, the video of the crossing of this former number 2 of the PJ having become viral on social networks.
