Christophe Castaner intends to put an end to the controversy over the use of weapons of disencumberment by the police during the demonstrations of "yellow vests". The Interior Minister said that the shots of defensive ball launchers (LBD) would be filmed in the next clashes, by a camera-pedestrian directly on the shooter, or on a police officer accompanying him.

This decision must apply Saturday for the "Act XI" of the grumbling movement, on an experimental basis. It follows a first experiment, conducted at the local level, Bourg-en-Bresse in the Ain, Saturday, January 19, and found satisfactory by Beauvau. However, this exercise could meet many technical and protocol constraints, as noted Thursday the guests of Wendy Bouchard, in The Tour of the question on Europe 1.

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Material that is not suitable

These are pedestrian cameras that will be used to record LBD shots, that is to say a device located at the belt or on the torso of the agent. However, the movements of the police officer can hide the lens at any time or deflect the angles of view. A phenomenon that has been observed in Bourg-en-Bresse. "In policing, the police are equipped with equipment that is heavy, a helmet, and the camera can also receive projectiles," details at the microphone of La France moves Christophe Rouget, police commander, deputy secretary general of the Union of Internal Security Officers. "It would eventually be a camera on the helmet or directly on the LBD to film the action in the correct conditions," he says.

Another limit of the exercise: the low power of the cameras-pedestrian batteries, which forces agents to trigger them before taking action. "The CRS can stay 15 hours on the ground, we have no equipment whose battery can hold for 15 hours, says Christophe Rouget." During the American experiments in the field, the camera turns during the entire vacation period of the patrol ", underlines Mathieu Zagrodski, associate researcher at the Center for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions, which recalls that many such tests were conducted in the Anglo-Saxon countries, in response to the problem of police violence.

As a result, the Minister of the Interior has indicated that police officers who have been cornered, forced to use the LBD to escape dangerous situations, would not be required to set off their camera. Experimentation can therefore only be applied to summing shots. "One can well imagine that in self-defense, if the police officer is attacked and has no automatic system, his first reflex will not be to press the button of the camera but to defend himself," argues Christophe Rouget .

A lack of guarantees

Finally, the very framework of this experiment questions. What guarantees to ensure the impartiality of the observations that will follow? For our sociologist, Mathieu Zagrodski, this type of exercise should be guided by a specific procedure. "There is never an evaluation of these experiments.It was said after 'Theo' case (a young seriously injured after a police arrest in February 2017, ed ) that there was going to be an evaluation internally with a report submitted to the Ministry of the Interior in 2018. It is 2019, I have never heard of any feedback ... ", he laments.

"In the Anglo-Saxon world when these experiments are conducted, whatever they are, there is also a research evaluation protocol that accompanies them to know the exact impact of this measure. the return of the ground and the goodwill of the policemen.This is not enough. "

It notes, however, that this type of measure has had positive consequences where they have been implemented. "There is a benefit of the cameras, observed in the American cities where it has been experimented: they generate a restraint of the police," he says. "We can also assume that it reduces abusive complaints."

However, this researcher does not believe that such a device is enough to silence the controversy over the arming of the police during the demonstrations, and believes that a deeper reflection on the methods of action of the police forces must to be engaged. "There is also the issue of political and hierarchical instructions, training and management.This is not a camera that will solve the problem of police violence and, more generally, the issue of police-population," he concludes .