You evoke in your work (https://www.cairn.info/revue-droit-et-societe-2017-3-page-485.htm) the existence of a very vertical vision of the police-population relationship in France, which is embodied in particular in the frequent practice of identity checks. An authoritarian conception of the profession which makes the institution reluctant to question it. How do you explain it?
This is due first of all to a very strong historical heritage, which comes from the way in which the police were created in France. It was established by royal decree by Louis XIV, and has always been designed as an instrument of population control. Even today, it remains very centralized, and its essence is first and foremost to protect institutions. In contrast, the British police were created in the XIXe century in a context of mistrust of the population who feared that it was a tool of oppression in the hands of royal power. To reassure citizens, we built the doctrine of “policing by consent”, the police by consent. According to her, the police must be above all in a process of prevention and resolution of conflicts rather than repression. In this approach, the aim of the police is to be legitimate, because when you are legitimate, you have less need to use coercion.
Furthermore, there are more recent reasons for certain trends in the French police. They are due to the mandate given to the police in recent years, with the priority of bringing back business. To try to achieve this, they multiply identity checks, which moreover often lead to nothing (note: more than 95% of them would not lead to any procedure). However, we thus favor a potentially conflicting mode of action. What is perceived as a banal and routine act for the police is experienced as constraining or even humiliating by those who are subjected to it.
Among the instruments for combating discrimination during checks, the government mentioned pedestrian cameras on the police or the delivery of check receipts. What is the use of such expedients?
These are technical tools that can improve the situation but they are still dressings. If we need cameras and receipts, it is because there is basically a problem in the relationship between the police and the population.
Are police models like that of Great Britain transposable to France, and do they translate into a notable difference in citizens’ perception of the police?
We are in relatively similar situations in terms of delinquency between France and Great Britain. On the other hand, the levels of confidence and police legitimacy are clearly different. 2/3 of the French population say they have a good image of the police or trust them. In Great Britain, as in Germany, it is around 4/5. In Denmark or Finland, which also have conceptions of the police close to that of Great Britain, the proportion climbs to around 90%. We can draw inspiration from certain practices in other countries. But, without looking elsewhere, there have been good initiatives in France with the community police or the daily security police project, launched in 2018. The latter, carried by the candidate Macron during the presidential campaign, started from a relevant diagnosis that the police were too focused on intervention. But this reform has been relegated to the background with the crisis of yellow vests. We come back a little to the starting point with the Beauvau of security.
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