” Partial », « lax », « dependent ». Since the crisis of “yellow vests” and the growing documentation of police violence, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has been the subject of intense criticism. Already mentioned in 2020 after the violent arrest of music producer Michel Zecler in Paris, the appointment of a personality from outside the police force at the head of this body is about to be formalized. This Wednesday, July 20, the Minister of the Interior should indeed propose the name of a magistrate – Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre – to lead the “police of the police”. A first since the creation of this administration responsible for controlling the action of the police in France.
Divided unions
Unsurprisingly, this atypical appointment is not seen as a “good thing” by the police union Alliance. “Already our colleagues feared the IGPN with a policeman at its head, then a magistrate, they will fear the worst”, reacted to AFP Frédéric Lagache, general delegate of the organization. An analysis far from being shared by his counterpart from the SGP Police FO Unit, Grégory Joron: “I’m not sure that it really worries the police officers in the field. It is an evolution, of course, but the IGPN was already not giving us gifts. So I do not see what this can change concretely. Especially since when police officers from the Inspection investigate colleagues, they are subject to the authority of a magistrate responsible for directing the investigations”.
Arrived at Place Beauvau in September 2020 as Justice Advisor to Gérald Darmanin, then appointed deputy director of his cabinet two years later, this 41-year-old magistrate is above all perceived as a “political choice” by Olivier Varlet, secretary general of the Unsa Police. Recognizing an “evolution of the institution”, the union official nevertheless believes that the profile chosen by the Minister of the Interior “reflects a lack of confidence in the police and in our institution”.
A symbol considered insufficient
Beyond the symbol, the scope of the arrival of Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre at the IGPN is largely nuanced by the NGOs and researchers who plead, since many years, for a true independence of this control body. “The IGPN remains attached to the Ministry of the Interior, and it is not this appointment that will solve the problem of access to justice for victims of police violence”, slice Fanny Gallois, head of the “Liberties” program at the within Amnesty France. In any event, the operation of this service should not be disrupted. However, according to the sociologist and director of research at the CNRS Sebastian Roché, only an in-depth modification of the status of this police force would make it possible to guarantee total independence to the investigators responsible for controlling their colleagues.
“This magistrate can be dismissed overnight. Its appointment remains at the complete discretion of the Minister of the Interior, and it is placed under the authority of the Director General of the National Police. When one appoints at the head of a control body a person who has the status of a senior civil servant and who has held political office, this is not a guarantee of independence. Finally, his appointment does not change the way in which police officers are recruited within the IGPN. They belong to the same professional group as those they are responsible for monitoring. They are both judge and party, ”lists the sociologist, specialist in police and security issues.
In the absence of a structural reform, Grégory Joron, he wants to see in this change of direction a “progress”. “If appointing a magistrate can save the institution from future false trials, so much the better! “, he concludes.