In Lyon, as in several cities in France, thousands of people demonstrated on June 6 against police violence. - KONRAD K./SIPA

  • On June 3 before senators, the Minister of the Interior put forward a figure from a recent survey commissioned by Place Beauvau according to which 84.9% of those questioned have a "positive image" of the security forces interior (police and gendarmerie).
  • The full results of this special methodology survey were published on Sunday, June 7.
  • If several surveys and polls conducted in recent years do indeed report a rather positive image within the population, significant variations exist depending on the category of population questioned and the experience lived by these people.

It is a timely publication. Shaken by several accusations of racism within it and castigated during the recent demonstrations in support of the family of Adama Traoré who died in 2016 after an arrest, the police institution is going through a serious crisis today. This Sunday, June 7, the Ministry of the Interior has posted the results of a national survey "on the quality of the link between population and internal security force". And the published figures are rave.

According to this survey entitled "EQP19" ordered by Place Beauvau and conducted between 2018 and 2019 by the survey pole of Savoie Mont-Blanc University with the support of the National Police Academy, 84.9% of the people questioned have a "positive image" of the internal security forces (police and gendarmes). And 82% consider their behavior “professional” during their interventions. Certainly reassuring figures for the "police house" but which deserve to be contextualized.

Positive results

Contrary to what the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner indicated to the Senate, it was not 48,134 people who replied (it is actually the number of "contacts" launched to participate in the survey) but 12,822 people aged 18 or over spread across the country.

Beyond the positive image of the institution and the “professional” character recognized by the respondents to the interventions by the police and gendarmes, “a strong majority seems to refute the purely repressive nature of their functions (62%)” and “underlines their constructive role (70%) and their positive contribution to improving daily life (77.5%) ”.

A particular methodology

But the methodology of this national survey deserves to be detailed. None of the participants was drawn as is sometimes the case during sociological surveys. To participate, the respondents had to connect to a dedicated site, print and fill out a coupon, then drop it off at a police station or gendarmerie.

They are therefore “voluntary respondents” informed either through the 8,000 posters distributed in various public places and police services, or contacted by the police (DCPP or police referent - population) directly during operations carried out in shopping centers by example.

[# eqp19] Large national survey on the quality of the link between the population and the security forces. Today @ PoliceNat10 at the Escapade #LaChapelleStLuc shopping center to meet and chat with you. pic.twitter.com/GKz77qEx8R

- Police Nationale 10 (@ PoliceNat10) June 20, 2019

"A major bias," says CNRS research director Sebastian Roché, a police specialist but refuted by the co-director of the investigation department of Savoie Mont-Blanc University, Stéphane Daubignard. According to him, this interaction with the police only concerned the registration process for the investigation. "They obviously did not conduct the questionnaires," he said. And he adds: “This survey is a research tool which aims to improve the quality of service of the security forces to citizens. Our goal was not to say "85% of people are satisfied with the police" but to identify avenues for work and improvement of the link between citizen and police or gendarmes, "he explains to  20 Minutes.

Significant contrasts

These results also deserve to be put into perspective with other studies - numerous - published over the last ten years in France on the link maintained between citizens and the internal security forces.

In 2017, the Defender of Rights revealed the results of his investigation dedicated to “police-population” relations, more specifically relating to identity checks. Once again, the survey revealed satisfactory relations between the population and the police, since 82% of the population questioned said "trust the police". At the same time, 84% of those questioned said that they had never been checked by the police in the past five years.

On the other hand, the study pointed out that young people aged 18-25 years declared 7 times more controls than the general population and "men perceived as black or Arab appear five times more affected by frequent controls". Among them, 40% reported having been groomed, 21% insulted and 20% brutalized during the last check.

Another benchmark study on the subject, the European social survey, conducted in 27 European countries between 2010 and 2011, showed even more contrasting results. At the time, France ranked 13th out of 20 for positive opinions following a contact on the initiative of the police and 19th out of 26 for the respectful treatment of people. In total, 35% of French people thought that - according to their experience - the police treated "without any respect" the public they were dealing with.

Finally in 2013, another study conducted by Sebastian Roché among 13,500 adolescents whose classes had been drawn at random in Lyon and Grenoble pointed to very different perceptions of the “EQP19” study. Thus, 40% of those surveyed declared that "the police or the gendarmes often or very often carry out excessive checks" and the same proportion considered the police as "racist".

A decisive contact

In this national survey relayed this Sunday by the Ministry of the Interior this Thursday, 75% of respondents say they were "in contact" with the police, "either on their premises or by phone". However, the nature of this contact - was it during a complaint? An arrest? An identity check? - is not specified in the study.

A clarification yet deemed essential by the CNRS research director, Sebastien Roché: “On the vague questions which refer to the needs of the police functions, there is always a majority of positive opinions. Citizens recognize the value of police missions, but questions about specific police action often generate much more mixed responses. " He pursues :

What comes out is that the more people who are in contact with the police, the less satisfied they are with the police. "

Stéphane Daubignard, co-director of the investigation department at Savoie Mont-Blanc University, now insists: “We will learn all the lessons from this first wave to improve the second. This work was a quantitative phase open to a large number of people with closed questions. One of the avenues envisaged for the following is to initiate a more qualitative phase with a reduced number of respondents and more open questions to identify new lessons. "

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  • Urban violence
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