Police: in Toulouse, 55,000 procedures pending
If the city of Toulouse is expanding, the police force and the magistrates are still as few in number. An imbalance that leads to an accumulation of unconsumed business. To date, 55,000 complaints are outstanding.
55,000 procedures are pending at the Toulouse police station. A figure that highlights the decline of Toulouse justice. For years, the lack of judicial police officers but also of magistrates has accentuated the decline.
The metropolis of Toulouse has a strange specificity. The number of police officers or magistrates is not in line with the population. The metropolis of Toulouse gains 15,000 inhabitants per year but the judicial police will only be reinforced by 4 officers in 2023.
A difficult situation for the litigants but also for the OPJ. Lionel Ricaud, departmental secretary of the national police alliance, explains: “Our colleagues in the investigation are in constant pain despite their hard work every day.”
According to him, an increase in the number of police is vital to help stem the influx of backlogged proceedings but also the rise in delinquency.
The Toulouse court faced with a lack of staff
If the judicial police lacks manpower, this is also the case of the judicial court of Toulouse. A hundred judges, clerks or prosecutors are missing to respond to citizens’ requests.
“The litigants are unhappy and they are right,” said the first vice-president of the Toulouse judicial court, Christine Kahznadar.
She continues: “We all realize that we cannot meet the justice needs of our fellow citizens. We need qualified people to be able to follow the files, to be able to judge them and to be able to return them within a reasonable time.
Currently it takes an average of 18 months to see his case judged before the Toulouse court. The city remains one of the least provided jurisdictions in France despite the constant evolution of its population.