• Several hundred police officers and magistrates demonstrated in front of the Marseille court on Monday.

  • In addition to the risk of political collision induced by this reform, the investigators of the PJ fear to "leave the field free to serious crime".

Police officers, magistrates, lawyers… They were just over 300 gathered this afternoon in front of the Marseille courthouse to demonstrate against the reform of the judicial police.

And here, probably more than elsewhere where rallies were also organized, the investigators of the judicial police (PJ) fear the effects of this reform.

The agents of the PJ would be called upon to "deal with offenses on the public highway", denounces Thomas, a police captain, spokesman for the national association of the judicial police (ANPJ), an organization just set up to fight against the reform initiated by Gérald Darmanin.



“That would lead us to participate in operations requested by the Minister, such as anti-rodeo operations, for example, to the detriment of our investigative work,” he continued.

In Marseille, headquarters of the specialized inter-regional jurisdiction (Jirs) for the southern zone, the movement brought together this Monday most of the 450 police officers of the PJ.

“We are going to leave the field open to serious crime…”

“This reform is to deal with everything that is seen in the street.

Scooter thefts, petty trafficking, snatching… And in return we drop the work of the PJ”, explains one of the 400 investigators of the Marseille judicial police.

“We are going to leave the field open to serious crime.

You see the death toll from gang warfare, well, there will be less investigation into them,” he fears.

Because this weekend again, an individual was shot dead in the northern districts of the city.

It would be the 28th victim of the year in the Bouches-du-Rhône in what looks like a new settling of scores.

However, the members of the PJ do not intend, for the time being, to give up on the "hot topics" in Marseille.

“We are not fighting against this reform to give up today.

It was still fired up this weekend, and of course we were there.

We are not going to risk putting down a case that we have been following for three years, ”explains anonymously another police officer present at this rally.

In this regard, "a great case" led by the Marseille PJ will land in court next Monday.

In April 2020, the investigators picked up a conversation in the car of a team of traffickers which they put on the sound system.

The team is clearly considering a settling of scores, ultimately foiled, but for which five men and one woman will appear.

“Only the PJ can do that.

And eavesdropping for eight hours every day is eight hours of work.

We cannot do a snatch or other robbery at the same time, ”explains an experienced Marseille policeman present at the rally.

“This movement will necessarily slow down the investigations a little, but that is not the goal of the game. We cannot say that we are letting drugs enter France and that we are not arresting the murderers”, warns Thomas of the ANPJ, according to whom "this reform will open the way to cartels and mafias".

And by spending less time working on organized crime, to give them more ground and to freewheel.

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  • Company

  • Marseilles

  • Paca

  • Police

  • Gerald Darmanin

  • Reform

  • Federal police