"No divorce between the police and its population", according to Darmanin - France 24

Paris (AFP)

"I do not share the fact that there is a divorce between the police and its population," said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, heard on Monday by the National Assembly's Law Commission, after a series of police violence.

"There is no need to reconnect, this thread has never been lost, but there is to understand the difficulties experienced by the police officers and also to understand how the population today wishes to exercise legitimate force. ", also indicated the minister.

Reaffirming that the acts committed by the police officers implicated in the beating of the music producer Michel Zecler were "unspeakable", Mr. Darmanin considered that "the individualities are not a whole", warning that he "does not would not support that one undermines the institution of the police force and the gendarmerie ".

"Why these acts?, He continued, probably because of individual behavior, perhaps also structural problems that do not date from yesterday."

First sin in his eyes, "the little training we offer our police."

"A national police officer is 12 hours of annual training," he said.

"Only 20% of police officers work these 12 hours per year in 2019".

To remedy this "I proposed to the President of the Republic this afternoon", "more important initial training", said Mr. Darmanin.

Second sin, according to the minister: "the fact that there are not enough leaders".

It is necessary "to recreate an intermediary body of supervision more numerous among the police officers and the police officers and the gendarmes on the ground", he argued.

Then come the problems of "material" and "images", said the minister, reaffirming the interest of pedestrian cameras, which will be generalized on July 1, as he had announced.

Fifth sin: "the question of inspections".

The minister considered that "if reform" of the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) there is to be done, it would be necessary "that the recommendations" of the IGPN in matters of administrative sanctions be followed by the minister.

He argued that if the IGPN was "as bad" as some say "the public prosecutor" of Paris "would not have seized it" with the investigation into the violence to which Michel Zecler was victim.

Finally, to strengthen the link between the police and the population, the minister recommended increasing the number of police members of the "reserve" to 30,000, ie the same level as the reserve of the gendarmerie.

© 2020 AFP