William Molinie
The deputies who are currently examining the orientation and programming law of the Ministry of the Interior (LOPMI) have spoken out in favor of the implementation of the reform of the national police. What arouse discontent among the officers of the judicial police who fear, among other things, a lowering of their specialization.
“It’s a culmination”, we welcome in the entourage of Gérald Darmanin. The National Assembly has just validated this Friday afternoon the principle of the reform of the national police carried out by the Minister of the Interior. This reform has aroused discontent for several months within the judicial police services (PJ). The “péjistes” say they are worried to see their missions to fight against organized crime misguided in favor of the treatment of mass delinquency hitherto attributed to public security.
Around 5 p.m., the deputies examined, in public session, the content of the report annexed to article 1 of the orientation and programming law of the Ministry of the Interior (LOPMI), setting the strategy for Place Beauvau to modernize the ministry. It is in this part of the LOPMI that the main principles of the implementation of this reform are inscribed, which however does not need a legislative article in its own right to be implemented.
No change of mission
This reform of the national police provides for the departmentalization of the judicial police and the reorganization of the various missions by “professional sectors”. What tense since this summer the police officers of the PJ who see it as a lowering of their specialization. In an unprecedented movement, the investigators mobilized in several police stations in France publicly showing their disapproval of this reform. The high point of the mobilization was the eventful reception of the Director General of the National Police (DGPN) at the Bishopric in Marseille, which led to the ousting of the head of the PJ, Eric Arella, accused of to have supported the movement.
An amendment tabled by the government, however, limited the implementation of this reform subject to relying on the conclusions of the various parliamentary fact-finding missions and the inspections ordered in the ministries. The representatives of the police unions who will be newly elected next December will also have to be “obligatorily” consulted.
Finally, it is written in stone that “no police officer assigned to the central direction of the judicial police will change, without his agreement, direction or mission”. On the precise vote of this amendment, the deputies LR and RN abstained. Everyone else voted yes.