“We clearly have something else to do …” The police reluctant to control the new restrictions



A week after Emmanuel Macron’s announcements, the bill extending the health pass was adopted on Monday in the Council of Ministers. The text, which will be examined Tuesday in committee in the National Assembly, then Wednesday afternoon in the hemicycle, provides in particular for the establishment of controls that could be carried out by the police.

While the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin on Sunday asked the prefects asked for firmness in the application of the new anti-Covid measures, the main unions of peacekeepers, consulted by 20 minutes, are unanimous: there are not enough police officers to carry out these missions which, according to them, are not a priority. “We clearly have something else to do,” said Grégory Joron, secretary general of the SGP Police-FO Unit union.

The text provides for the placement and maintenance in isolation of any person tested positive for Covid-19, for ten days in the place declared for the examination. A measure whose compliance can be controlled by the police and the gendarmerie. “It is not our core business, nor our mission, to knock on the door of thousands of positive people to check that they are well isolated,” assures Stanislas Gaudon, general administrative secretary of Alliance police nationale. It is more the work of the health insurance. An opinion shared by Thierry Clair, national secretary of the Unsa police. “It is up to the departments which carry out checks on sick leave to carry out these checks. “

“You can’t ask the police everything”

According to the unions questioned, this mission would be far too time-consuming for already busy staff. Denis Jacob, general secretary of the Alternative police union, did the math: “To go and check a single person, you have to mobilize a crew, that is to say three colleagues. If there are 1,000 people to be checked, that makes 3,000 police officers mobilized for 30 to 45 minutes. It’s just not possible, we have something else to do, ”he explains. “What priority missions are we going to sacrifice in terms of controlling people at home? “, Asks Stanislas Gaudon for his part, adding that the Alliance union is” standing up against this measure “.

Another sticking point: the police could have to check that establishments open to the public control the health passes of their customers. For Thierry Clair, “it is up to the professionals concerned to control them, because we cannot ask the police for everything, it is not possible”. “We cannot fight against drugs, intra-family violence, secure tourist districts, seaside towns, and ask us in addition to control restaurant terraces”, adds Grégory Joron. “Are we going to randomly check people at the table in the evening eating and we are going to ask them for their health pass?” It’s going to be a fist, ”predicts Denis Jacob. And to add: “People will also remind us that the police are not subject to the health pass. “

200,000 bars and restaurants to control

Stanislas Gaudon also wonders about the feasibility of such a measure, while there are “about 200,000 bar or restaurant type establishments in France”. Grégory Joron does not say anything else: “The political will will also come up against the realities on the ground: how do we control the terraces of each bar for lunch and dinner? “

Denis Jacob, from Alternative Police, goes further. For him, Emmanuel Macron should have “clearly announced the obligation of vaccination for all French people to simplify the work of the police”. As it stands, concludes Thierry Clair, the planned measures will “really complicate the task of police officers in relation to the missions they already have”.



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