In Nanterre, in the corridors of the central direction of the judicial police, the atmosphere is “gloomy”. “We don’t know our future well. We do not know what will become of the PJ, we do not know if we will continue to exist ”, laments a commissioner. At the origin of this fear, a reform launched several months ago at the Ministry of the Interior, which provides for the creation of departmental directorates of the national police (DDPN) bringing together under a single command public security, territorial intelligence (the former “RG”), the border police and the judicial police. “The PJ as such will no longer exist”, regrets a union source on condition of anonymity.
This new organization, tested since January 1 in Overseas Territories and in Pas-de-Calais, Savoie and the Pyrénées-Orientales, aims “to fight against the logic of silos and to organize so that, there too , between all the components, the work is done in a much simpler way ”, declared the President of the Republic in his closing speech of the“ Beauvau de la sécurité ”, on September 14th. It should soon be generalized to the whole country, decided Emmanuel Macron.
“More coherent management”
The departmental director of the national police will have to pilot not only the police officers in uniform, but also the investigators. “In principle, we agree, we will have an organization that resembles that of the gendarmes, with a single chief per department, and therefore more coherent management. But we will be attentive to the way things will be done, both in terms of operational organization and career paths, ”explains Patrice Ribeiro, general secretary of the Synergie officers union. “But there is an interrogation for the judicial police”, he underlines.
Currently, the 5,670 civil servants who make up the PJ are divided between the central services and the directorates, each of which covers several regions. “Departmentalization, we don’t mind. But by definition, we were created in 1907 because the municipal framework – which was that of the police at the time – was too narrow, ”explains another commissioner who has spent his entire career in the judicial police. “With the evolution of delinquency, the Internet, means of communication, transport, it is all the more marked,” he adds. The department seems too narrow for us. Our scale is at least the region. Our strength lies in being able to mobilize everywhere, at any point in the territory. “
Independence issue
Above all, as stated in the white paper on internal security published a few months ago, this reform “will consolidate the authority of the prefects in the conduct of their security missions in the department”. For Katia Dubreuil, president of the Syndicat de la magistrature, this measure will not promote the “independence” of the judicial police, nor give it more resources or staff. The magistrate, who pleads for the PJ to be attached to the Ministry of Justice, believes that there is “no argument to put all the services under the leadership of the same departmental director who will be under the supervision of a prefect ”.
A high-ranking official abounds: “What always makes the PJ interesting, for the magistrates, is its independence, it is a fundamental value. Another clarifies the fears of investigators: “The territorial directors of the national police will be under the control of a prefect. The priority will be public order. It will be necessary that the prefects have reports of everything, more than the magistrates at the limit. “
The sleuths of the judicial police, whose work is less visible to the population than that of their colleagues on the public highway, fear being relegated to the background. And all the more so as the presidential election approaches. “At the moment, the priority of priorities is the daily police, public order. We go into third, even fourth curtain. We have no reinforcements, we are in the street “, deplores a commissioner who is” very very pessimistic about the future “. And to conclude: “We are a bit in the dark. It makes things a bit gloomy, as we have no visibility, we live a bit from day to day. Even if we don’t have to be ashamed of our results. “