The national police presented Thursday its team of 66 high-level athletes, created on the model of the army of champions on the military side, with the aim in particular of “giving a good image”, acknowledged the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin . The fencer vice-world saber champion Maxime Pianfetti or the gymnast Carolann Héduit, bronze medalist on the beam at the European championships this summer, are among the new police recruits.
Previously the institution’s top athletes (already numbering 36 previously) had to undergo a four to twelve month training course to join the police, this is no longer the case with the new system. After four “acculturation” weeks spread over the beginning of 2023, these contract workers become operational reservists or citizens, they are paid the minimum wage (with bonuses) and only have 25 days a year to dedicate to communication actions .
Police-population hyphen
A role of ambassador similar to that of the army of champions. “We are not going to reinvent the powder when it works”, displays the general commissioner Rachel Costard, head of the sport mission created last June. “Police officers who go to the Olympic Games, who have successes, national, European and world, it is good publicity for the Ministry of the Interior and for the police”, welcomes Gérald Darmanin, while the controversies have escalated. multiplied on the French doctrine of maintaining order during the demonstrations against the pension reform.
Among the objectives assumed: “to bridge the gap between the police and the population” and to “attract profiles who were not thinking of the national police”, lists the director general Frédéric Veaux while the police are recruiting in abundance in sight the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Rugby World Cup in September. For example, 2,800 additional peacekeepers in the Paris agglomeration over the year 2023, announced Wednesday Gérald Darmanin.
“We have a very strong recruitment plan. There is a lot of increase in staff to prepare for the Olympics. Our objective is to have a kaleidoscope of social and territorial origins”, he explained Thursday. “Sport can be part of models to give a good image of the national police.” For the first time, para-athletes (six in number) joined the ranks of the institution’s high-level athletes. “As you had to be a policeman before, there were physical criteria, the Paralympics were in fact excluded,” said Rachel Costard.