William Molinié 9:26 a.m., February 28, 2024

This is a new illustration of the primacy of European law over French law.

The criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation, the highest court, delivered a judgment on Tuesday.

Police officers will now have to go through a judge to track a suspect's phone. 

This is one of the most basic acts of an investigator: geolocating the phone of a drug trafficker live.

This allows the police to know where drug stocks or places of sale are located.

“We do it daily,” assures this police officer.

But from now on, he will have to ask a judge for approval to carry out this geolocation.

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Until now, the only agreement from the public prosecutor was enough.

In its judgment, the Court of Cassation justifies this decision by the obligation to comply with European law.

“We are in the process of organizing the backlog of justice,” whispers a disappointed investigator to Europe 1. 

“The law becomes a game of goose”

A new control of the investigation which is therefore added to the judges' thick files and which also risks extending the paperwork time of the investigator, to the detriment of the collection of evidence.

Meanwhile, the trafficker is still on the run.

“The law becomes a game of goose. You roll the dice, you come across a square with a hole. And you start again at the beginning,” squeaks a police commissioner.

Who is now wondering: “Where has Emmanuel Macron’s promise to simplify criminal proceedings gone?”