2023-10-11 18:06:06
The Council of State, in its most solemn formation, decided, Wednesday October 11, two particularly sensitive issues, which affect the police. In the first, the highest administrative court considers that the wearing of a police registration number, supposed to be obligatory, must actually be so, and that it must be made more visible. On the other hand, in the second, discriminatory identity checks – “facies checks” – the Council certainly agrees that they are not “isolated cases”but judges that he does not have to interfere in public policy, which is the responsibility of the government or Parliament.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers “Facies checks” and the wearing of police personnel numbers, two very sensitive issues before the Council of State
The police personnel number affair is a long-term battle, brought before the Council of State by the Human Rights League and the Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture. Since January 1, 2014, in fact, the 150,000 police officers and 87,000 gendarmes, even in civilian clothes, are required, during law enforcement operations, to carry a “repository of identities and organization” ( RIO): a seven-digit number written on a tiny bar, scratched on the chest, measuring 45 millimeters by 12 for gendarmes, 50 millimeters by 12 for police officers. The number, obviously difficult to read and remember, “is far too small to be visible on most video recordings taken in close proximity”reported, in 2020, the Defender of Rights.
Wearing the RIO is obligatory, the Ministry of the Interior reminds us of this regularly, and always in vain: no sanction has ever been imposed, and many police officers exempt themselves from it. The Ministry of Place Beauvau “does not produce in defense any element likely to contradict the extent of these cases of apparent failure to carry the identifier”agrees the administrative court, which also considers that the RIO did not “sufficient readability”. It thus requires the Minister of the Interior to take “all useful measures” within twelve months to enforce the port “effective and apparent” of the registration number and make it more readable. “This is a real legal victory, welcomed Mᵉ Patrice Spinosi, the association’s lawyer. This is a milestone in restoring public confidence in their police, and we really need it. »
Massive checks but not recorded
The second file is much more thorny. Firstly because it is a group action, led by six associations (including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Open Society Justice Initiative) and it is the first time that the Council of State is involved. grasped. It met, for the occasion, in an extremely rare “Litigation Assembly”, which brought together the seventeen highest magistrates. The associations dreamed of an American-style judge, who would summon the State to take measures, and would impose “a monitoring and evaluation procedure”, like in New York.
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