Questions around the maintenance of order are again a priority. The police are under fire from critics in the face of demonstrators against pension reform or against opponents of mega-basins in Sainte-Soline. Among the subjects of controversy, the RIO number (repository of identities and organization) that the police must carry in order to be able to be identified.
This is why four organizations of magistrates, lawyers and the defense of human rights (the League of Human Rights, the Syndicate of Lawyers of France, the Syndicate of the Judiciary and the Action of Christians Against Torture) lodged an urgent appeal with the Council of State to make this obligation effective.
A practice far from being applied by all
These organizations had already filed a classic appeal in September, which is still under investigation. But they believe that “the question has become urgent with regard to the management of the maintenance of order” in the context of the mobilization against the pension reform, they say in their request, consulted by AFP.
Since 2014, police and gendarmes must wear their number on their uniform, an individual identification number called RIO, allowing them to find an official in the event of a slip-up. In practice, this obligation is far from generalized, for example during law enforcement operations. In their request, the organizations argue that the “unjustified” or “disproportionate” use of force has been observed and documented “on many occasions” during demonstrations and rallies – declared or not – against the pension reform.
Attacks on the freedom to demonstrate
It was also “noted” during this social movement that “police officers do not wear their RIO in general”, they say. “There are attacks on the freedom to demonstrate, and a systematic use of force, often without control of the possible agent, because without the possibility of identifying him”, estimates Thibaut Spriet, national secretary at the Syndicat de la magistrature ( listed on the left).
Some police officers find the obligation to wear their RIO “stigmatising”. This seven-digit number stemmed from a campaign promise by François Hollande in 2012 to fight against racial profiling.