The grateful nation. Thursday, through the head of state, it was all of France that paid tribute to the three police officers from Roubaix, killed on Sunday by a driver, in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille. During the ceremony, they were decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor, promoted to the rank of police captain and guaranteed to see their children become wards of the nation. So many distinctions offering the families of the disappeared, in addition to the honor they represent, support from the State which, however advantageous it may be, will never replace a spouse or a parent.
Medals for Glory
During his speech, Thursday, on the place d’armes of the Roubaix national police school, Emmanuel Macron wanted above all to “pay homage” to the fate of the three officials killed and to reaffirm “respect and affection for those who serve and protect. Tribute that the Head of State materialized by awarding peacekeepers the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor posthumously. Like the gold medal for act of courage and dedication, awarded to these same police officers by the prefect on Monday, the Legion of Honor brings almost no material benefit. Certainly, the recipients can claim an annual salary, but it is derisory, up to 6.10 euros for the rank of knight.
According to the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor, the daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of holders of this distinction can claim to integrate one of the two “houses of education” to complete an educational course from college to post-baccalaureate classes. Schools that show 100% success to the patent and the baccalaureate, where one wears the uniform and for which the places are expensive: only one thousand pupils at the rate of approximately 2,000 euros per school year.
Posthumous promotion
Besides the medals, the three police officers were promoted. From peacekeepers, first grade of the supervisory and enforcement corps, they have gone on to become police captains, second grade of the command corps. “It is first of all a way of paying homage to them, but it plays above all for the family of the civil servant in the calculation of the survivor’s pension”, explains to 20 Minutes a delegate from the SGP Unit union. The survivor’s pension is an allowance paid to the spouse and children of the deceased policeman who is ” equal to 50% of the pension obtained by the official or which he could have obtained on the day of his death”. It is calculated on the basis of the civil servant’s salary so, mathematically, it will be higher for a captain than for a peacekeeper. On the other hand, obtaining this pension is subject to conditions, in particular having been married.
Promotion to the rank of captain will also determine the death benefit “paid to the beneficiaries of the official who died in service”. According to Support guide for the families of police personnel who died on missionthe amount of the death benefit “is equal to the last annual salary of activity” and it “varies on the one hand, according to the circumstances in which the death took place and on the other hand, according to the family situation “.
wards of the nation
State support is even more marked for the children of police officers who died in service. Granting the status of ward of the nation to the orphans of civil servants “died for the service of the nation” is equivalent, for the State, to adopting them. It is, in a way, the insurance for these children never to be left to their own devices, whatever their family situation. According to the National Office for Combatants and War Victims (ONaCVG), which manages child wards of the Nation, this status allows children and their families to get a lot of help. This goes from the basic maintenance of the child (care, clothing, food, leisure), to the costs of health, studies, until the entry into active life. This status is not reserved for the children of civil servants, but accessible to the children of victims, or victims themselves, of acts of terrorism.