They no longer want to be considered a “sub-police”.
From Lille to Marseille, hundreds of municipal police officers were heard blowing whistles on Saturday during rallies across France, to demand better recognition.
Katia Boudin, 45, police officer in Salon-de-Provence, was in the Marseille rally “to have recognition in the same way as the firefighters or the national police”: “Because we go into contact with the population and we take the same risks,” she explained.
“Since 1999, we have not experienced any change in status and we see the town hall secretary move to category B while we are still in C,” she said, among the approximately 500 demonstrators identified by the prefecture. from police.
“Often the first responders”
In Paris, a few hundred people marched from Place de la République to City Hall, many wearing yellow “municipal police” vests sometimes crossed out with the inscription “on strike” or “angry”.
“Show your anger”, encouraged one of the representatives of the inter-union on the microphone: “It is not normal that in 2024 the municipal police will be considered as sub-police”.
The City
of Paris can count on us but must support his police officers#hidalgo
@OliviaPolski pic.twitter.com/nNOM3vxDnK
— UNSA Ville de Paris (@UnsaAP) February 3, 2024
“We are demanding a status for municipal police officers, with a retirement worthy of the name, but also a real status for the ASVP (
public highway surveillance agent
)”, demanded for his part Bertrand Debeaux, national FO PM representative from Lyon , where around a hundred agents were gathered.
“We are often the first responders.
In Nice, the police officer who put an end to the mass killing (
at the Notre Dame de l'Assomption basilica, in 2020
), was a municipal police officer who was armed,” recalls Jérôme Cellier, member of the office of the departmental association of municipal police officers from Gironde to Bordeaux (200 police officers mobilized).
“What ignited the powder were the announcements by Élisabeth Borne after the riots last summer: she spoke of broadening the skills and prerogatives of municipal police officers, but without this being accompanied by “additional recognition,” analyzed Thiebault Parré, 46 years old, half of whom are in the municipal police, present at the gathering in Strasbourg among some 160 agents.