They are less common, but increasingly dangerous. Road refusals to comply decreased slightly between 2016 and 2023, but the most serious acts are on the rise, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which published on Thursday the first study on these offenses which have become a major issue for the police forces. the order.
On average over this period, the police and gendarmerie services recorded 25,700 road traffic refusal offenses per year, according to the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI). Over these seven years, they decreased by 5%, according to the study.
In detail, they first experienced an increase of 12% between 2016 and 2021, when they went from 24,400 facts to 27,300. Then the curve reversed between 2021 and 2023 (23,100), i.e. a drop of 15%.
More and more risks
On the other hand, almost one in five refusals to comply concerns an “aggravated” offense, that is to say it “directly exposes other people to a risk of death or disability”, underlines the SSMSI. “The share of these aggravated offenses increased from 16% in 2016”, or 3,800 incidents, “to 21% in 2023”, with 4,900 situations recorded, we can read in this document.
Several refusals to comply which turned into drama have sparked heated controversies in recent years, particularly questioning the police response. The most emblematic concerns the death of Nahel in June 2023 - victim of a police shooting during a road check in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) - which led to urban violence.
Since January 2022, the SSMSI has distinguished security force agents from other victims in its data: thus, in 2023, among the 4,900 “aggravated” refusals to comply, 10% endangered police or gendarmerie agents. , according to the study.
Refusals to comply occur everywhere in the territory, the authors of the document also point out. The department most affected, between 2016 and 2023, is Martinique, with 7.4 refusals to comply per 10,000 inhabitants, followed by Guadeloupe (7.2) and Seine-Saint-Denis (6.4). Followed by Vaucluse (6), Guyana (5.9), Pyrénées-Orientales (5.3), Eure (5.3) and Corse-du-Sud (5).
The statistics also make it possible to outline the profile of the perpetrators of these crimes: within the scope of the national police (i.e. half of the offenses recorded), 97% of the crimes are committed by men, and 75% by people under the age of 30 years old.