The Court of Auditors is not kind to the police. In a report published Wednesday, she criticizes the practice of identity checks carried out by the police and the gendarmerie, highlighting in particular the lack of supervision of the hierarchy and management. Number of checks per year, in what circumstances and quantity of reports: 20 minutes takes stock of the three figures to remember from the report.
47 million identity checks in 2021
The police and gendarmerie services carry out some 47 million identity checks each year in France, according to an unprecedented estimate. The Court of Auditors describes the use of this process as “massive” while recognizing that its estimates are “tainted by numerous uncertainties”, due to “partial and unreliable sources”. But in total, this amounts to an average of nine checks per patrol per day.
An estimate, however, deemed “likely” by the police, the gendarmerie and the Paris police headquarters, questioned by the Court of Auditors, reported its president Pierre Moscovici during a press conference. The magistrates of the Court produced their estimate by exploiting the histories for the year 2021 of the files of wanted persons (FPR) and the national driving license system (SNPC). Each agent is supposed to consult one or the other during an inspection.
More than 14 million on the roads
In detail, 20 million identity checks, including 8.3 as part of a road check, were carried out in 2021 by the gendarmerie. The police carried out 27 million checks, including 6.6 million on the roads.
This data contains several biases, upwards and downwards, specifies the Court. Certain file consultations correspond to access controls to certain sites and not to controls of people, or to controls in the context of legal investigations. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that each check results in a file consultation.
222 reports in 2022
The report also points to “hierarchical management difficulties linked to the reduction in the number of officers”. Thus, “in the majority of cases, only the controls which the agents themselves believe must be brought to the attention of their immediate superiors are therefore the subject of hierarchical attention”, further notes the Court of Auditors . Control of identity checks will therefore depend on the public, who can make a report on online platforms or by contacting the Defender of Rights.
“Little used” remedies, notes the report which notes 218 reports as well as 14 referrals to the Defender of Rights concerning the national police in 2022, and only four reports concerning the national gendarmerie. If the reports received are indeed the subject of an investigation, observes the report, “the monitoring of these files is primarily the responsibility of the services concerned, without overall analysis or feedback to the general inspectorate”.
The use of identity checks is denounced by several NGOs and the work of researchers, who consider it ineffective in the fight against delinquency and leading to discrimination. In October, the Council of State, contacted by several NGOs, considered that the practice of facial checks “exists” and constitutes “discrimination” for the people who undergo them. But he declared himself incompetent to force the State to fundamentally modify its “public policy”.