- The Minister of the Interior denounced, during a trip, the videos filmed by witnesses during a police intervention and which are "cut, distorted and thrown on social networks".
- Christophe Castaner asked that the deployment of pedestrian cameras be accelerated. He would like the images filmed with this device to be "shown" to "set the record straight".
- The Beauvau tenant, faced with an angry movement by the police, thus took a step towards the police unions which were claiming this.
Christophe Castaner is using technology to reassure his troops. For several weeks, the Minister of the Interior has been confronted with the anger of the police who blame him for his lack of support in the face of accusations of violence and racism exposed during recent demonstrations. Having quickly recognized communication blunders during his speeches, he has been working since then to try to recover the confidence of the hundreds of agents, supported by their unions, who mobilize almost every evening. Last week, during a trip to the Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or police academy, he notably castigated the videos filmed by witnesses during the intervention and which are "cut, distorted and thrown on social networks ”.
In order for the police officers involved to defend themselves, the Beauvau tenant asked that the deployment of the pedestrian cameras be accelerated. He thus wishes that the images captured with this device worn by the agents "be able to be communicated, transmitted, shown to establish or re-establish the facts". By disseminating them, for example, on social networks? “Currently, this is not possible. Any exploitation of these videos is prohibited outside the legal framework. There is therefore a reflection, within the framework of the white paper, on the need to change the law. We have to see how far we can go, that everything is well framed, ”confides to 20 minutes the entourage of Christophe Castaner.
"Truncated, manipulated videos"
This measure, if implemented, would be "a good thing", judge Frédéric Lagache, national delegate of the Alliance union. But proving the good faith of the officials denounced is not enough. "We must also tackle the issue of blurring the police" on videos filmed by witnesses, said the unionist. For the moment, there is no restriction to film or photograph the field agents. However, “the police and their families can be in danger if they are recognized on videos posted on the Internet, explains Frédéric Lagache. We must therefore force people who put these images online or the hosts to blur them, at the risk of being penalized if they do not. "
The fact remains that the unions are generally satisfied, they who have been demanding for a long time "the legalization of the use of the images of these cameras for communication purposes", explains Linda Kebbab, national delegate of the union SGP police-FO unit. According to her, too often the police are "victims" of the dissemination on social networks of "truncated, manipulated, blurred videos, out of context" accusing them unjustly of burrs and being "lynched". "While we can't use our own videos to defend ourselves. It's a real handicap, ”she breathes.
"An offering to the police unions"
Place Beauvau therefore intends to throw itself into this war of images by using the thousands of cameras distributed to field agents. But their "technology will go upmarket", recognized Christophe Castaner. Among their many shortcomings, Linda Kebbab points out their low autonomy and their complexity of use. “There have been problems with the previous ones, we recognize that. You don't just need a large number, the range also has to follow. But so far, their specifications were very restrictive, and few companies had responded to the call for tenders, "justifies the entourage of the minister.
But for Sebastian Roché, director of research at the CNRS and author of the book De la police en democratie *, the idea of using these images "to make a counter com before the end of any internal or judicial investigation" is "doubtful" . "If there is an incident, a police service - or even the IGPN if it is more serious - investigates what happened. There is an analysis. Communicating that there was no fault on the part of the agent does not remove the need to conduct an investigation first, ”continues the sociologist. According to him, "responding instantly" to accusations "is not the best thing to do for an organization like the Ministry of the Interior". "But by claiming that this will restore the truth, Castaner makes an offering to the police unions" in an attempt to "calm them down".
* Police in a democracyby Sebastian Roché, Grasset editions, 384 pages, 24.90 euros
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