“This reform arouses rejection: we must therefore stop this spiral which risks creating a worrying and destructuring gap within our police house”, write the two unions in a joint press release sent to AFP.
This “reform raises too many unanswered questions and its merits are not established”, add the organizations, without however calling for the withdrawal of the project.
They are calling on Minister Darmanin for “a quick decision to calm things down”, in order to “return to a real field of exchanges” on this subject “whose impact (structural and human) within the judicial police must no longer be neglected. “.
The two unions, united for a few weeks within the same union “bloc” for the professional elections at the end of the year, also reiterate their request for a “moratorium”, already called for in early September.
The National Association of the Judicial Police (ANPJ), created in August against the reform, expressed its “indignation and dismay” on Saturday after the dismissal of Eric Arella, the boss of the judicial police for the south of France.
He was dismissed from his post on Friday, the day after an action by his troops against the reform of the PJ, on the occasion of the arrival in Marseille of the director general of the national police (DGPN) Frédéric Veaux.
“This big boss with an exemplary career and career, was unanimously recognized and appreciated by his staff, magistrates and executives of the judicial police”, writes the association, denouncing the “authoritarian methods” of the DGPN, which carries this reform with Gérald Darmanin.
The ANPJ “counts on the highest authorities of the State to find an acceptable solution to this unprecedented crisis within the judicial police”, she adds.
The ousting of Mr. Arella sparked outrage within the ranks of the PJ and in the judiciary. In protest, hundreds of investigators gathered outside their departments on Friday afternoon. The rallies took place “in more than 40 cities”, according to the ANPJ.
The reform project plans to place all police services at the department level – intelligence, public security, border police (PAF) and judicial police (PJ) – under the authority of a single Departmental Director of Police national (DDPN), dependent on the prefect.
Opponents of this project denounce the risk of a “leveling down” of the PJ and a strengthening of the weight of the prefect in the investigations.
