the magistrates of Toulouse are concerned about the future treatment of sensitive cases
Is the Toulouse SRPJ living its last days? A reform provides for a merger between the PJ and the Departmental Public Security. The magistrates denounce a loss of competence and a risk of interference in political and financial affairs.
The Viguier affair or the explosion of AZF: the Toulouse judicial police are on the front line in major criminal investigations in the region. But the days of the Regional Judicial Police Service (SRPJ) are numbered.
This Wednesday, September 7, a bill, presented to the Council of Ministers, must end the long career of the SRPJ of Toulouse and all its counterparts in France and overseas. The Minister of the Interior wishes to departmentalise the organization of the national police. One of the chapters of the reform provides for a merger between the judicial police and public security.
Currently, the SRPJ is placed under the authority of an interregional directorate, itself integrated within the central directorate of the judicial police (DCPJ).
Gérald Darmanin wishes to bring together in a single departmental entity all the police services (PJ, intelligence, public security, border police). This territorial direction of the national police (DTPN) marks the end of the autonomy of the PJ and its changeover under the authority of a departmental direction and, goodof the prefect.
The police are fiercely hostile to this new organization. Members of the PJ have even set up an association to oppose the project.
The National Association of the Judicial Police wants to be “apolitical and without union label“.
An opaque and deadly project with disastrous consequences
National Association of Judicial Police
This Thursday, September 8, a meeting was scheduled between the police unions and the director general of the national police (DGPN). Information on the content and outline of the reform will be communicated to the trade unions. But the sling is strong and goes beyond the police ranks.
Magistrates very worried
For the representative of the Union Syndicale des Magistrats (USM) of Toulouse, the reform of the national police – including the merger of the PJ with the other services – is “pooling of resources” presented as an efficiency gain. More “it is not by reducing skills that we will gain in efficiency”.
According to Christine Khaznadar, the magistrates of the Public Prosecutor’s Office but also the investigating judges are “extremely worried“.
The judicial police cannot be learned in 2 minutes. You have to be super sharp and master the procedure in order to dismantle ultra complex offenses
Christine KhaznadarRegional Delegate Union of Magistrates
For the trade unionist, the reform is not likely to lead only to a loss of skills, with members of the PJ who find themselves doing “all comers” or, on the contrary, with police officers from the Public Security who have to take charge of “sharp” folders. It is the choice of a departmental level that is in question. Currently, the SRPJs have regional jurisdiction.
The “new” judicial police risk finding themselves confined within the borders of Tarn, Aveyron or Haute-Garonne.
Crime has no borders. The reform goes against the grain of the functioning of a crime that is not limited to the borders of a department
Christine KhaznadarRegional Delegate Union of Magistrates
The magistrates’ concern is mainly about the fact that the judicial police are changing “hands”. Currently, the direction of investigations is exercised by magistrates, members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office or investigating judges. With the entry into force of the reform, in 2023, it is a police officer, acting under the control of the prefect, who will become the boss of the judicial police.
For the Toulouse magistrate, this presents a “major democratic riskIndeed, the Departmental Director of Public Security (DDSP), future head of the PJ, does not benefit from the status of magistrate and the guarantees of independence that go with it.
On sensitive matters, political or financial, there may be an influence of the state system
Christine KhaznadarRegional Delegate Union of Magistrates
The departmentalization of the judicial police is being tested in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Savoie and in one of the departments of Occitanie, the Pyrénées-Orientales.
After nine months of testing, the prosecutor of Fort-de-France draws up a first assessment that is mixed to say the least. The magistrate points out: “twice, a police officer, supposed to lead the device, is someone who has no experience of the judiciary“.
The Minister of the Interior said he was ready to amend his reform project.