It’s a long-awaited decision. The Council of State examined, on Monday, the wearing of the RIO by the police, this number which makes it possible to identify each agent, and will render its conclusions on Wednesday. Several organizations for the defense of human rights, lawyers and magistrates have urgently appealed to the Council of State. They believe that the police and gendarmes have repeatedly made, since the beginning of the demonstrations against the pension reform, an “unjustified” or “disproportionate” use of force, often without possible control of the agent because he was not wearing his Apparent RIO.
Since 2014, police and gendarmes must wear their number on their uniform: it is this famous individual identification number called RIO (Repository of identities and organization), making it possible to find an official, for example in the event of slippage.
Confidence “shaken”
At the hearing, the president wants to know what is the “scale” of the phenomenon. He will not get a clear answer, but certainties from each side of the room. The practice is “widespread”, “systematic” and “documented”, assure Mes Paul Mathonnet and Patrice Spinosi, in defense of the organizations at the origin of the request (the League of Human Rights, the Syndicate of Lawyers of France , the Syndicate of the Judiciary and the Action of Christians Against Torture). “It shakes people’s confidence in the police” when those “who ask them to respect the law do not do so”, says Me Mathonnet.
“There is no laxity”, maintains opposite the representative of the Ministry of the Interior, Pascale Léglise, speaking of “18 reminders” of the instructions since the entry into force of the RIO – the last dating from “the day before “ Demonstrations against pensions and against mega-basins in Saint-Soline (Deux-Sèvres). As everywhere, “there are good and bad elements”, but the latter must not “cast opprobrium on the entirety” of the profession: “most agents” wear their RIO, she assures . Photos proving otherwise? “Everyone takes the same”, sweeps Pascale Léglise.
Calls to order
“Was there ever a disciplinary procedure for an agent who did not wear his RIO? asks Me Spinosi. The representative of the State dodges, argues that “it is an aggravating circumstance” in the event of proven fault by the agent. Me Spinosi insists, Pascale Léglise evokes “individual legal reminders”… before finally acknowledging that no one has ever been prosecuted for the sole fact of not wearing their RIO: “it is not considered a breach, since there was no consequence, ”she says, making people jump on the benches opposite.
The RIO is not essential to “identify” agents, she further argues. All the people targeted by the 36 judicial investigations opened since the beginning of the mobilization against the pension reform by the IGPN, “the police of the police” (two by the IGGN, the equivalent among the gendarmes) for disproportionate use of strength are “perfectly recognizable and recognized”, insists Pascale Léglise.
In support, the head of regulations and investigations at the CRS, Franck Rousselle, lists what makes it possible to “identify” the agents and to trace “to the second” any intervention: the “colored bands” on the helmets , the “pad” that identifies the company, and, “in the back”, the group numbers with the “role” of the agent. Then the “badges” on the vehicles, and the intervention reports – “if there are five grenades thrown at such a time, we know it”, he explains.
“It has been proven that a third” of the procedures targeting the police are closed for lack of elements or identification of the police, nuance Me Mathonnet, so Me Spinosi protests at the demonstration of the Interior. “They come to tell us: ‘the RIO is useless, don’t worry, we absolutely don’t need it'”, he says. “That’s not how it works, there is an obligation, it must apply. The organizations propose to “empower unit managers” by launching disciplinary proceedings in the event of non-wearing of the RIO by one of their agents.