According to the institution’s annual report, thirty-seven police officers were sentenced to court last year, a record.
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“Unhappiness is never pure, any more than happiness.” It is by this quote from the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, specialist in the concept of resilience, that Brigitte Jullien, outgoing director of the General Inspectorate of the Police Police National (IGPN) -It is replaced by a magistrate, Agnès Thibault -Lecuivre -concludes her last foreword to the annual report of her institution. She pays homage to the “resilience” of the 270 members of the IGPN Face “to attacks and criticisms”, which, it is true, multiply, in recent years.
The “police police” has been missioning since 1969 to control and investigate the national police services and staff, around 150,000 civil servants. In practice, however, it only takes care of ordered the most serious suspicions. IGPN also has a more general control role, especially on the use of firearms by the police. But it does not have the final decision -making power on the sanctions pronounced in the event of breaches, which remains of the jurisdiction either of justice, if a judicial investigation is open, or of the hierarchy of the policeman questioned. This is one of the elements that explain the magnitude of criticisms against the institution, particularly questioned on the sidelines of the often violent police repression which enamelled the movement of “yellow vests”.
At the peak of this movement, in 2019, IGPN had processed 1,460 judicial inquiries – some of which opened in previous years -, a record. The figure fell to 1,101 in 2020 and 1,093 in 2021. In detail, in 2021, the IGPN was seized of 531 new judicial affairs, a decreased figure (547 in 2020, 789 in 2019). On the other hand, 2021 marks a record with 37 sentences in police justice following IGPN surveys – and three relaxes -, much more than 2020 (23 convictions) or 2019 (24 convictions).
2 162 sanctions
These judicial investigations carry, in their majority (47 % in 2021), on the use of force by the police: 510 surveys were launched for this reason in 2021, that is, again, much less than 2019, where 868 surveys took place.
In addition to these judicial inquiries, the institution diligent 176 administrative surveys, almost as much as in 2020 (173) and less than in 2017 or 2018, where the figure rose to 290. These investigations led to note 728 breaches Professionals and ethics, committed by 301 police officers. It is, first of all, the breach of the duty of exemplarity that is selected (for 157 agents, or 20 % of the surveys), followed by the disproportionate use of the force (59 agents concerned). Another frequent reason is abuse in the use of personal data files (32 agents concerned) or the breach of the duty of discretion (29 agents). Theft, embezzlement of seals and other attacks on probity concern 52 agents.
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