Police training: the worrying drop in the level of recruits in Ile-de-France

Are the new police recruits who work in Ile-de-France all at the level required by the profession?

"The level is dropping", alarmed members of the competition jury and the trainers we interviewed.

Regularly modified, the evaluation grids have been revised downwards in recent years to avoid eliminatory marks during the training of future peacekeepers.

During their examinations, police officers can now forget a signature or the date on a report and lose only a few points.

“However, it is an error which invalidates a procedure.

Before, it was synonymous with zero, ”notes a member of the competition jury, also a teacher during the training, who shared his experience with us.

"Usually in the last of their promotion"

This leveling down of receipts in the national competition has direct repercussions on the field in Ile-de-France.

Because, to compensate for the many transfers of seasoned police officers leaving the Paris region, attracted by the living environment and the price of real estate in the province, several hundred of these new recruits are assigned each year in the capital and its suburbs.

“And those who arrive in the Ile-de-France police stations are generally in the last of their class.

Many candidates are in fact provincials who prefer to stay close to home when they can, that is to say when they are well classified and can choose their position, ”acknowledges a framework of the Ministry of the Interior.

"Each year, between half and two thirds of the positions to be filled in the competition are located in the Paris region", affirms, with supporting figures, an official of the General Directorate of the National Police.

"There is a lack of staff in many police stations"

Vocation crisis?

Not even.

Above all, there is an urgent need for staff.

In 2012, nearly one in 50 candidates entered the peacekeeper competition.

But by 2013, that ratio fell to almost one in five.

Because nearly ten times more positions were opened for a number of applicants approximately equal.

And this observation is still in force: in 2020, 19,546 candidates registered in France for 3,631 positions.

"With such a ratio, we should not expect to make a real selection," sighs a juror.

In one year, between 2018 and 2019, the average score for external candidates fell by almost one point (12.69 / 20 to 11.43 / 20).

"And again, this general average is offset by the very good grades of over-educated candidates that we have recently seen arriving," notes a trainer.

Now, that's almost 20% of registrants.

"

A Senate report from November 2019 points to this problem.

He "is worried about the capacity of the security forces to achieve, over the next few years, the planned employment patterns

(Editor's note: recruitments)

without too significantly lowering the quality of recruitment".

"If the recruitment pools were not to be sufficiently renewed by the end of the five-year term, it would be important that the annual objectives for the creation of posts be re-examined in order not to unreasonably lower the level of enrollments in schools", he said. written in this report.

"It's college level"

“The level of the worst admitted has only decreased over the years, sighs a member of the jury.

We must honor the order, there is a lack of staff in many police stations… And Emmanuel Macron promised 10,000 agents during his mandate (

Editor's note: also including the gendarmes

).

We will achieve it, but at what cost ... "

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The last ones on the list of receipts do not have all the qualities required to exercise this profession according to the juries we interviewed.

“There are still five or six years, we would not have taken below 9/20, for two years we have gone down to 7 or 8/20, says another trainer.

12 is already very average, so 7… It's college level.

"

"They easily lose their means and become aggressive in a discussion"

Language and writing skills are of particular concern, according to the trainers.

"On the spelling, it concerns two or three candidates out of a class of 35, but sometimes we are at the limit of phonetics", assert two trainers.

These shortcomings are also found orally.

“Some of the trainees do not know how to express themselves clearly,” says a third trainer.

They easily lose their way and become aggressive in a discussion because they do not have sufficient language to argue.

"

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In terms of behavior also trainers are alarmed.

“There is a problem of involvement, among the students we come across young adults who are coming out of the family cocoon for the first time, blows a trainer.

And when they don't like or master an area, they give up.

Some students also realize that they will not be among the first and will certainly be affected in Ile-de-France.

"It scares them, they let go and do not project themselves into their profession", relates a third, who still wants to remain positive: "Fortunately there are still super motivated students, brilliant or not, but who do not care about them. ranking for assignment and just trying to learn and understand.

"

A physical condition not always at the top

More surprisingly, the sporting level is also disappointing.

According to these trainers, candidates bypass the physical tests of the competition, including internal ADS, which present a medical certificate justifying an injury.

“There are even fakes,” assures a trainer who is also a juror.

“And on the required endurance test, trainees display performances below the average of a teenager in 6th grade, loose a trainer.

They should be unfit and despite this, they are now police officers.

"

"We have more and more overweight trainees," adds another.

And when we approach the exercises of control of an individual during an arrest, some put themselves in danger by lack of physical training.

Controls can get out of hand because of that.

"

Training reduced from 12 to 8 months

And the shortcomings of the competition are not made up during the training offered to the laureates.

"We have even reduced the theoretical training from twelve months to eight months, it allows to gain one or two promotions over a five-year period, advance two trainers.

It defies all pedagogical rules, there is no longer any quality of learning.

"

The Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, himself admitted at the beginning of December before the National Assembly "a fundamental error", that of having shortened the training periods since June, from twelve to eight months, so that the students peacekeepers are operational as quickly as possible.

"It was not a good calculation," admitted the minister.

On the 2020 promotion, several reports were raised by the trainers.

"Nearly 150 trainees had neither the level of involvement, nor the physical, technical or intellectual baggage to become a police officer," says a training executive.

However, only eight exclusions and two repetitions were recorded.

Twelve future peacekeepers have yet to go before the disciplinary committee.

"Students who have committed crimes have even been admitted"

“We would like a candidate who does not satisfy us not to be able to become a police officer.

But training is expensive for the State, so to refuse a student, it is really necessary that his case is gratiné, ”says a trainer.

“On the latest promotions, students who have committed crimes have even been admitted,” says another.

"The jury remains sovereign but, while I apply the evaluation grids, I am told that I am too severe", supports a third, who recalls that now "the spelling errors do not lose any more points".

These trainers are even encouraged to be lenient: “We have to explain ourselves when we give bad marks.

Indirectly, if we do not want to be held accountable, it is better to close our eyes, that avoids having problems.

"

In any case, most of the failures at the end of the training course who appealed to the administrative tribunal were successful and reinstated.

“They passed the competition, so they are in a strong position.

Our administration protects, that's good, but sometimes too much, ”admits an officer of the General Directorate.

“The objective is to convince them that they are not made for that, that they are going to put themselves, their colleagues and the population in danger,” resumes another trainer.

So they don't get caught up in appealing.

"