The reform wanted by Gérald Darmanin continues to create unease within the judicial police. The police will demonstrate this Monday at midday against the government’s project. Ten days after the brutal eviction of the boss of the PJ in the region, magistrates and lawyers join this movement of anger.
The officials of the judicial police continue their protest against the police reform project carried by the Minister of the Interior. Usually very discreet, the investigators demonstrated once again this Monday, October 17 in front of the prefecture in Montpellier, against the government’s project. Ten days after the brutal eviction of the head of the PJ in the region, Eric Arella, magistrates and lawyers have planned to join this movement of anger.
Several judicial unions called at the end of last week for protest rallies on Monday against a project “likely to seriously undermine the effectiveness of investigations and the independence of justice”.
This controversial reform, which is currently provoking a strong mobilization in the ranks of the police, proposes to place all the police services at department level, including the PJ, under the authority of a single departmental director of the national police ( DDPN), depending on the prefect.
Félix Allary, former head of the Montpellier PJ who became a lawyer will be among the ranks of the demonstrators.
The judicial police is the armed arm of justice.
Felix Allary, lawyerFormer head of the Montpellier SRPJ crime squad
From the peacekeeper to the commissioner, all the police officers will demonstrate. There will also be lawyers who do not want the judicial police to come under the control of the prefects. What is new: the presence of magistrates, including the conference of public prosecutors, the association of investigating judges. François Molins, the public prosecutor at the court of cassation, declared that the suppression of the judicial police was dangerous.
This reform challenges the separation of powers.
Felix Allary, lawyerFormer head of the Montpellier SRPJ crime squad
“Currently the SRPJ is under the control of the magistrates and under the authority of the central director of the judicial police. However, this reform provides for the merger of the administrative police and that of the judicial police which will be under the authority of the Departmental Director of the National Police, himself directly attached to the prefect. What is embarrassing is that it will be the prefect who will decide on the resources to be allocated to such and such an investigation. Example: when Lucas Tronche disappeared, police officers were assigned for weeks on this case and went to investigate in Bagnols-sur-Cèze… Tomorrow, if these police officers are placed under the authority of the prefect, with a departmental budget, the latter will favor his department rather than another” , fears Félix Allary, former head of the Montpellier SRPJ criminal brigade, and lawyer for 11 years.
That “will lead to the absorption of the PJ by public security and will sacrifice a highly specialized sector on the altar of the mass treatment of everyday crimedeplore the representatives of the unions and the association calling for demonstrations, in a press release. In addition to the fact that delinquency rarely stops at the boundaries of the department, criteria of opportunity may guide the distribution of resources by the DDPN: statistical requirements, pressure from elected officials, specificities of local delinquency..
The police also fear the abolition of the financial brigade called upon for political and financial investigations
The magistrates of the eight specialized interregional jurisdictions (JIRS), specialists in serious organized crime and serious financial crime, also expressed their “deep concern”, regarding the PJ reform project.
