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Municipal police in Paris: between Griveaux and Hidalgo, the arms race

2020-01-24T18:34:20.382Z


The candidate LREM for mayor of Paris announced Thursday the tabling of a bill aiming to create a municipal police in the capital


Parisians are concerned about their safety and candidates for municipal elections have integrated it perfectly. The bickering between the favorites takes on a little more vigor each day as the proposals are formulated by each other. It did not take long to see the accusations of lying and manipulation flourish. The creation of the municipal police in the capital is certainly the most obvious example.

However, one could have hoped for a concord on the subject, since most of the candidates agree on the need to implement it. Alas, since the announcement of Benjamin Griveaux's proposals, the tension has been at its height. Between Anne Hidalgo and the candidate LREM, a new game settles down quietly, to find out which camp was the first to really defend the project.

The municipal turnaround

For years, Anne Hidalgo said she was opposed to the creation of a municipal police force in the capital. Questioned in 2016 by the Commission on Constitutional Laws, she also declared: "Given the budgetary restrictions, it would be taking a huge risk for the security of Parisians, tourists, all those who frequent the metropolis, to to engage in an adventurous way in the creation of a municipal police force. I therefore remain firmly opposed to this proposal ”.

Before suddenly changing his mind, at the beginning of July 2018 faced with a handful of journalists. The attacks had left their mark and a study commissioned by the municipality finished convincing her.

It was even believed that the project would eventually advance rapidly. The law of February 28, 2017 relating to the status of the city of Paris gave the Mayor of Paris police powers hitherto allocated to the police headquarters. These included the regulation of festive, sporting or cultural events, the sanitation of buildings and even traffic. To sum up: community policing. 3400 officers are now dedicated to these tasks, without being able to claim the status of municipal police.

A first failure

The town hall claims to have taken the necessary steps to bring out in the capital a municipal police worthy of the name. Work had been launched with the Ministry of the Interior to move forward on the file. Until an amendment is tabled by the socialist deputies within the framework of the bill relating to the engagement in the local life and the proximity of the public action. This aimed to "align the police powers of agents of the City of Paris responsible for a police service on the common law of municipal police officers".

The debate on this amendment was lively. The text did not receive majority support and was not adopted. Bruno Questel, rapporteur of the text, explains the position of the majority. “At no time was I contacted by the authors of the amendment to find out how to incorporate it into the bill. The work was not completed, there were still unknowns in terms of means, skills and training of the police. It was only a maneuver to denounce the fact that Benjamin Griveaux did not support the project ”.

Because on November 21, 2018, the candidate for mayor of Paris was not present in the hemicycle and did not take part in the vote. He would have voted against this amendment, he finally assumed thereafter, contrary to his support Pierre-Yves Bournazel or even the dissident Cédric Villani, who both supported the socialist initiative.

"Griveaux did not want the police to be created before the elections"

Bruno Questel justified his opposition to the PS amendment last November by the need to "not get involved in this business so close to the municipal elections". However, the filing of Benjamin Griveaux's proposal does not bother him in any way: "What he does is perfectly logical. Already, the bill will not be examined next week. What he says is: I am a deputy, if I am elected mayor of Paris I should leave my functions and I will no longer be able to table this text myself . He makes every effort to make the project a reality. "

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At City Hall, we choke on these arguments. Emmanuel Grégoire, first assistant to the town hall, accuses in return Benjamin Griveaux of having wanted to assume the authorship of the creation of the municipal police at the expense of his opponents. "He could very well have tabled his amendments in November at the same time as us. But he did not want the police to be created before the elections, "he denounces. Dilatory maneuvers illustrated, according to him, by the announcement, this Thursday, of the tabling of a bill "establishing a municipal police force in Paris".

We must be up to the security challenges for Parisians.

I therefore submitted, with the Parisian deputies, a bill to the @ AssembleeNat for the creation of a municipal police force of ordinary law, which will be at the heart of our municipal security strategy. pic.twitter.com/JFi8jP0jJs

- Benjamin Griveaux (@BGriveaux) January 23, 2020

"We had regular discussions with the prefecture and the Ministry of the Interior until the summer of 2019. Then, the light went out," continues Emmanuel Grégoire. We immediately understood that the idea was to prevent us from creating the municipal police before the elections. ”

Lies "

No need to try to reconcile the two camps. There remains a debate on the merits, Benjamin Griveaux accusing the socialists of having put to the vote an amendment drawn up in a hurry. “The LREM bill is more precise, more detailed and more technical, supports lawyer Laurent Franck Lienard. The amendment presented shortcomings in terms of officer training and did not provide for derogations from the status of the mayor's police powers. "

We must be up to the security challenges for Parisians.

I therefore submitted, with the Parisian deputies, a bill to the @ AssembleeNat for the creation of a municipal police force of ordinary law, which will be at the heart of our municipal security strategy. pic.twitter.com/JFi8jP0jJs

- Benjamin Griveaux (@BGriveaux) January 23, 2020

“Lies”, retorts from tick tock Emmanuel Grégoire: “the socialist amendment made it possible to create a municipal police force on the basis of ordinary law. As far as I know, the training of police officers in Lyon or Marseille is not in dispute. It would have been the same in Paris! "

Two different projects

By looking at the two texts, there are still differences that probably reflect the political ambitions of the two competitors in terms of security. "Benjamin Griveaux offers a security shock, he intends to set up the same police as in other cities, the agents will have the same powers and will be trained in the same way, via the CNFPT", analyzes Sebastian Roché, sociologist and research director at the CNRS.

"Conversely, continues the one who had been asked last year by the outgoing mayor as part of an audit on the creation of the municipal police, the Mayor of Paris places himself in a perspective of transition, taking into account of the various trades of agents currently in post. It is true that they have distinct skills that it is difficult to hide when it comes to passing a course. "

An analysis confirmed by the intentions of the candidates: Benjamin Griveaux wants police officers equipped with firearms, unlike Anne Hidalgo. With only one certainty at the end of this debate: the municipal police, one way or another, will most certainly arrive in Paris. Once the elections are over.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-01-24

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