On the eve of its closing, what conclusions can we draw from this consultation?



For Emmanuel Macron, there was “urgency to act”. Summoned by the Head of State at the end of 2020 to clear an explosive situation after the Michel Zecler affair involving Parisian police officers, the “Beauvau de la sécurité” comes to an end on Tuesday. For the occasion, the President of the Republic will go to the National Police School of Roubaix, where he is to announce a “strengthening of the control of the action of the police” thanks to the creation of “a independent body ”.

Officially launched last February, this consultation structured around eight thematic projects – law and order, psychosocial risks, relationship between the police and the population or with the justice system – should feed into a future law on programming and orientation of internal security. Seven months after the first exchanges between unions, members of the police hierarchy and associations, what conclusions can we draw from these debates? 20 minutes make the point.

A welcomed listening

Central players in these round tables, the union representatives of the law enforcement agencies welcome the “listening” that was given to them throughout this consultation. “We cannot say that there was no social dialogue and that the Ministry of the Interior did not provide the necessary means. I have never been so received in Beauvau as over the past seven months, ”smiles Grégory Joron, secretary general of Unit-SGP Police. “Some round tables have freed the floor. In any case, we did not deprive ourselves to take it, ”says the national secretary of the union of police commissioners, David Le Bars.

This is also what Christophe Girard, vice-president and spokesperson for Pep’s, retains. His association – born from a simple Facebook group – offers advice and moral support to police officers who are going through a suicidal crisis. “Until now, we talked about psychosocial risks but not suicides, as if there was a denial, a taboo. During our round table, we felt an awareness and active listening ”, greets the police officer.

On the form, however, all deplore the limited duration of certain exchanges. “In three hours, we do not remake the fate of the police and the gendarmerie. But Beauvau still had the merit of existing, ”continues David Le Bars. Aware of the electoral challenges to come a few months before the presidential election, the two trade unionists are waiting for concrete and structural measures to reform the police organization. “On the managerial side, beyond announcements, we hope that there will be a real paradigm shift,” pleads Grégory Joron. “We have thought about it enough, now is the time to take action with ambitious and courageous decisions. If it sounds like “Pschitt” and we only end up with a declaration of love from the President, we will wonder what all this will have been used for, ”says David Le Bars.

A sharply criticized “between oneself”

On the side of anti-racist associations, the results are much more critical. The LDH (League of Human Rights) as SOS Racisme denounce “the inter-self” and “corporatism” of this consultation. For the president of SOS Dominique Sopo, “the issue of racism has been completely removed from Beauvau”: “I had personally asked to be received during the round table dedicated to the police-population relationship but this was refused to me. . On this subject, there was no dialogue with civil society, ”regrets the activist.

The absence of union representatives of magistrates during the debates devoted to the links between police and justice is also pointed out. “We obviously did not want to attend all the round tables, but we found it unfortunate that no representative of the justice personnel could respond to the attacks of certain police officers”, confides to 20 minutes Ludovic Friat, Secretary General of the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (USM). Faced with criticism from the police unions who denounced a supposed laxity of justice with regard to attackers of the police, it was the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti who tried to defend the action of the Chancellery and its staff.

For Dominique Sopo, these absences express “a police logic, which consists in estimating from the outset that any person outside the police force is illegitimate to give the slightest opinion on the profession”, he analyzes. His counterpart at the head of the LDH, Malik Salemkour, said he did not “despair”: “Perhaps Emmanuel Macron will retain some of his announcements made in December 2020 on the transparency of police activity or the possibilities of recourse in the event of abuse. We hope so in any case. ”



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