He invites his colleagues to confide, to tell their intimate stories and their daily lives as police officers, and strives to make them known through sound portraits. Guillaume Olivès, a 36-year-old young policeman from Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), a “night person” who roams this difficult district of Val-d’Oise at night, produces a series of podcasts launched in January 2023, “Being a Cop”which met with success with 20,500 listens.
The desire to share the daily life of his colleagues came after a motorcycle accident in 2019. “I took a long time to recover, I spent several months in a wheelchair. It cut two years off my life. There was confinement and I realized that I did not know my colleagues with whom I nevertheless spent hours in the car. »
He submits the idea of these podcasts to his superiors. “She immediately approved my project and provided the means to do it,” says the peacekeeper who finds funding from the MGP (the security forces mutual fund) and the support of Emmanuelle Myoux, from the Newing agency, which provides sound recording, editing and posting on platforms such as Spotify or Deezer, Apple podcast…
Testimonials on notable cases
“I take you to discover the story of police officers from all walks of life. Those you meet at the bottom of your house, those you call at 17 “, launches in the introduction to the podcast of a policeman the peacekeeper of Sarcelles who does not part with his field notebook. Today, 8 podcasts like so many singular portraits are available.
The first achieved, that of Thierry, one of his colleagues retired after thirty-five years of service, remains significant for him. His colleague evokes a case that marked him “for life”, a child kidnapped in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), whom he finds with his colleagues by dint of patrolling the Stade de France sector, which is then in these 1990s a vast construction site.
“We learned afterwards that the author intended to kill the child. We saved him from his clutches and from death,” says the honorary commander, who does not hide the repercussions of this case like others, violent, depression and questioning. “People got attached to his story. Many ask me for news, ”says Guillaume Olivès, who titled this episode “Cop and Resilience”.
Cécile talks humanistically about her work with minors
The Sarcelles police officer also met Sabrina, mother and police officer in Caen (Calvados), who juggles with children and her job. He also gives voice to Quentin, from a family where you are a cop from generation to generation. His grandmother was, as were his father and mother. He lost his father in circumstances he doesn’t know and he doesn’t want to know. He lives with that, which does not prevent him from being full of life. »
We also come across Mohamed at the heart of the mission to exfiltrate French nationals from Afghanistan, or Cécile who speaks humanistically about her work with minors.
The choice of police officers met must be approved by Sicop (the information and communication service of the national police). “But there has never been a refusal,” underlines Guillaume Olivès. “Then, the Sicop does not have the right to listen and discovers the podcast on the platforms. I have great freedom of movement. Which surprised me at first. I hope this makes these encounters all the more human. »
Police “with shattered souls”
Some police officers have sometimes refused for private reasons, “to protect their families”, the others receive Guillaume and Emmanuelle Myoux at their home. “The police are used to asking questions. Sometimes you have to get the worms out of their noses. But it happens that the colleague switches on and talks for half an hour. It’s the magic of encounters,” he continues.
“All cop stories are out of the ordinary! The police are a bit of shattered souls. So there are secret gardens that you don’t force. It is sometimes in a look that we understand each other…”
These secret gardens of Sarcelles, Guillaume also thinks of evoking them later on another medium. Leaving school in 2017, originally from Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), he arrived in Sarcelles where he is still in service, at night, six years later. “When you arrive, young police officers, there is a cultural shock, new codes to grasp, other people… Sarcelles is tired by the pace of work. Conventional interventions can evolve very quickly. »
“A hard, tiring, exhausting job”
He evokes the station, “the hub of everything”, with its street vendors already in place when he leaves work in the early morning. “You have to be on your guard, but it’s a beautiful city, an anthill for the police and also a city to which we are attached. There is work to do. »
He speaks of “a hard job on a daily basis, tiring, exhausting”. “There is no time, we are there when we are called. We are the last resort”, adds Guillaume, who will conclude this first season of podcasts with two new episodes. “I can’t wait to invite a night person,” he confides.
