- In an interview with 20 Minutes , Major General Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Director of the Judicial Police within the National Gendarmerie, draws up an inventory of the crime linked to Covid-19.
- If he notices a “drop in delinquent activity” since the introduction of confinement, this officer observes “a shift from delinquency to new themes that are potentially linked to the crisis”.
- He also explains how the gendarmerie organized to "last in the crisis".
The general of division Jean-Philippe Lecouffe is at the head of the sub-direction of the judicial police of the national gendarmerie. Since France has been affected by the coronavirus epidemic, he has observed a general drop in delinquent activity. But the gendarmes are "very attentive to a shift in delinquency on new themes that are potentially linked to the crisis," he explains in an interview he gave us this Tuesday evening.
Trafficking masks, drugs, scams on the Internet, controls of false gendarmes ... This framework of the gendarmerie draws up for 20 minutes an inventory of the delinquency linked to the coronavirus and explains how the institution adapted to face the situation.
Have you observed a decrease in delinquency since the start of confinement?
Yes, there has been a drop in delinquent activity since there has been a drop in overall activity. It must also be said that certain crimes are more difficult to commit today, for example burglaries, since people are at home. But suddenly, it is the stores or businesses that are sometimes empty and become targets. We must therefore secure them. We are also very attentive to a shift in delinquency to new themes which are potentially linked to the crisis.
Which ones for example?
In particular, offenses committed on the Internet. Traditionally, cybercriminals have used the themes that make the headlines a lot to get their targets to open emails, attachments, go to various and varied sites… This is a fairly classic phenomenon. They do this at major sporting events, such as the Football World Cup. Oftentimes, offenders send emails promising places to compete or set up sites to scam people. Well there is the same thing with the Covid-19. What worries us is that there is what is called an increase in the attack surface.
That is to say ?
As people are confined to their homes, it has more people connected to the Internet. Indeed, we do not all use a computer in the office. So that means there are more people at risk of being attacked. There are many risks: ransomware, ransomware, online scams, etc.
In addition, people are more vulnerable because many people use their personal computer to work at home, and it is often less well protected than their professional computer. In addition, there is no service, as in businesses, to ensure the safety of the machine they use for their work but also for their leisure. All of this makes them more vulnerable.
Are mask thefts also part of your concerns?
Yes, very clearly. Everyone wants them, but they are primarily intended for health personnel. We are therefore mobilized to fight theft. But also against all forms of trafficking in this product. Some sell them, on the Internet or under the cloak, which are not effective, or at prohibitive prices ... The gendarmerie intervenes very quickly as soon as it has the opportunity.
At Orthez hospital, 1,000 masks had been stolen and a suspect was arrested quickly. In Marseille, on Tuesday, we seized 3,600 masks and obtained information which we communicated to the police, leading to the discovery of 28,000 masks in Pantin.
There is a lot of talk about chloroquine right now. Do you see the emergence of drug trafficking?
We know that there is a traffic in prescriptions to obtain chloroquine or antimalarial products. Lots of sites have also emerged claiming to sell. It is obviously a scam. As the crisis is health, we see a whole bunch of offers developing for drugs or medical equipment sold on more or less recommendable websites. Sometimes these are drugs that are not even validated or recognized!
We are therefore very vigilant and Oclaesp (Central Office for the fight against damage to the environment and public health) is on permanent alert. He remains in contact with our foreign and European partners to discuss these subjects.
Do you think offenders will manage to adapt to the situation?
We are obviously monitoring criminal activity to see how it will reconfigure according to the difficulties it may encounter in obtaining supplies due to confinement, traffic difficulties, checks on detention certificates. We are very attentive and observe how the criminals will reorient themselves. So we absolutely lowered our guard.
In several departments, the gendarmerie reported that individuals posing as gendarmes controlled motorists and tried to get the amount of the ticket in cash…
It is a phenomenon that we have spotted in some places. We remind you that the gendarmes act in uniform and in screen-printed vehicles.
People should be wary of people claiming to be gendarmes but being dressed in civilian clothes, having no "gendarmerie" armband, unable to present a professional card.
Do you also fear, with confinement, a resurgence of domestic violence?
For the gendarmerie, this remains a priority. We still have teams in a position to intervene, the 17th remains activated. We pay particular attention to vulnerable groups: women in danger, children likely to be victims of violence, seniors. We have, for example, developed a system for monitoring potential victims - women who have already filed complaints of violence, families in which there are problems ... We try to keep in touch so that we can intervene if that went wrong for them.
Apart from emergencies, it is always possible to use the platforms set up to report sexual or gender-based violence. And the gendarmerie digital brigade remains accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Precisely, how was the gendarmerie organized during this period?
We have reviewed our working methods. Our goal is to last in the crisis. We must deploy on the ground to enforce government directives, and more specifically containment. To preserve our workforce, we benefit from our dispersal on the territory: the gendarmes meet less because they are distributed in many small units. We avoid assembly points, we make the units work independently.
Wherever we could, we organized the work on the side, that is to say that a part is on the ground and the other work at home. And after a few days, they exchange. The idea is that the staff do not rub shoulders so that, if it should happen, that only one plank is contaminated by the virus. So we have solutions to continue our business. We also respect barrier gestures a lot.
What about criminal investigations?
There, it is the interest of the investigation which commands. If there is something urgent to do, whatever is essential, we do it. And whatever we can postpone, without prejudice to the investigation, we postpone it. It is managed on a case-by-case basis, according to priorities. After, there are surveys for which we need to update ourselves in terms of procedure, to study stacks of documents, analyze mega bytes of data… We take advantage of this kind of moment to do it - notably thanks telework.
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- Society
- Interview
- Delinquency
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Gendarmerie
- Constable