This is a first in France, but the other public prosecutor’s offices under the jurisdiction of the Zonal Directorate of Public Security South-East (i.e. five courts of appeal) should sign in a few weeks, this partnership which aims to make the officers better known judicial police and magistrates. It is a question of arranging cross training courses between magistrates of the prosecution and police officers of all ranks, to understand the reality on the ground of the two camps. “The idea germinated in 2016, and we have already experimented with the idea. The dynamic was stopped by the Covid, and with this signature, we are securing the process, beyond the people who initiated it”, begins the Attorney General, Jaques Dallest.
This first agreement engages the parquet floors of Grenoble, where the signature was held, but also of Bourgoin-Jallieu, Vienne and Valence. “On these courses, which will last from one day to a few days, we will be able to explain to the investigators why a file is sometimes canceled […] It is very difficult to understand that an individual can be morally responsible, but not be criminally responsible. »
Caroline Thermoz-Liaudy
And vice versa, of course. “We are going to improve our exchanges in the management of investigations. Explain why certain procedures are unnecessary or not. Explain what tends to work or not” adds Fabrice Gardon, zonal director of South-East Public Security. “We are the links in the criminal chain which goes from the filing of a complaint to the judgment. With the common interest of the safety of victims and the preservation of society. Investigators need to understand why we need to have strong procedures.” he adds again. “The prosecutors will be able to realize the level of adversity, violence, tension on the public highway. We must get out of the sterile opposition between police and justice, otherwise those who win will be the offenders”.
Both parties will obviously have to keep their critical eye, warns the prosecutor. No connivance but a better understanding, for more effective decisions and more vigilance. Eric Vaillant, prosecutor of Grenoble, already evokes his wish that the magistrates who will arrive in September take part in an internship (which remains subject to the voluntary participation of the participants), if only to better know the jurisdiction.
A report will be drawn up in a few months. At the end, the prosecutor Dallest does not exclude an enlargement to the criminal magistrates of the seat.
Caroline Thermoz-Liaudy
Reform of the police card
The zonal directorate of public security is a decentralized level, created in January 2021, between the national directorate, which manages 70,000 police officers, and the departmental level (DDSP). “This zonal level already existed in the other branches of the police, but not for public security. It is a question of bringing closer the management of a block of DDSP by defense zones » explains Fabrice Gardon, South-East zonal director. Its sector has 12 DDSPs, owes five courts of appeal (Chambéry, Lyon, Riom, Nîmes and Grenoble), some 22 judicial courts, and 8,000 police officers.
“Now all the police are divided into zonal directorates: judicial police, border police, CRS, internal security… which makes us all compatible with the major changes that are being prepared in the national police, which will have to unify all these branches, and which is scheduled for 2023.
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