In 2022, police officers made record use of their stun guns

While the police will be pointed again this Saturday on the occasion of a march in Paris against "systemic violence, for social justice and public freedoms" at the call of associations as well as parties of the left and extreme left, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN, the "police of the police" ") makes public this Thursday an annual report that challenges a number of fantasies and caricatures. This document lists 1065 judicial referrals for 2022. That is, apart from the atypical peak of 2019 linked to the movement of "yellow vests", a quasi-stability of the most serious cases since 2016.

Of this total, 48% of investigations (508 in total, compared to 510 in 2021) concern suspicions related to the use of force. More than one in two times (54%), the latter is linked to an "arrest or a similar operation", usually on the public highway. "This figure is clearly increasing since it represented 37% of allegations in 2021," note the "carrot oxen" of the police who, in terms of "moments of great tension", cites "identity checks (10%), road checks (14%) that degenerate" as well as "contexts of demonstrations and law enforcement (12%).

The hunt for the "ripoux"

There is no doubt, in this respect, that the next annual review will be rich in lessons after the violent demonstrations against the pension reform and the riots that shook the country in 2023. "After an increase that began two years ago, investigations into allegations of racist or discriminatory insult remain at an equal level," says the document, which mentions only 52 cases in 2022, compared to 51 in 2021, 38 in 2020 and 31 in 2019.

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Tracking down the "ripoux", IGPN investigators were seized of 56 cases of corruption, 64 files of thefts including committed in seals or 130 investigations related to file misappropriation and violations of professional secrecy.

Avoid bloodshed

In total, some 775 police officers were questioned as suspects last year. If the figure may seem important, it is down compared to the 921 agents worried in 2021, and the 1107 of 2020.

On the ground, police officers used their firearms 255 times, a drop of 24.6% compared to 2017. On the other hand, the IGPN notes a clearer increase in the number of ammunition, 846 having been used against 713 in 2020. While the shots targeted individuals described as "dangerous" on 50 occasions, police fired at moving vehicles in 54% of cases, causing 15 injuries and 13 deaths among users.

A total of 38 people were killed and 66 injured following a police mission last year. To avoid spilling blood, the police have never drawn so much their taser, used 2699 times in 2022. That is + 11% compared to 2021 and a doubling of its use in five years. In half of the cases, this non-lethal weapon was used in "contact mode", the other uses being made in "deterrent mode" - by simply pointing a laser beam - in 23% of cases, or in "shooting mode" 25%. During the same period, the police fired 7020,35 defensive bullets supposed, on paper, to "interrupt the aggressive gestures of an individual at a maximum distance of <> meters".

As part of their "action in the service of the population", the carrot oxen reveal that "90 police services were visited as part of unannounced checks related to the reception of victims, including those of domestic violence". Before recording a rate of 79% user satisfaction, proof if any that not everyone hates the police.