Agents of the Liège judicial police denounce a climate of terror, moral, physical and even sexual harassment in their daily lives. The union received around twenty complaints. Some even mention suicide.
Sophie* is an experienced police officer. Recently, she broke down under the pressure of her superiors. With her face masked, she recounts what she has been experiencing for several months. “I don’t live anymore, it’s in my head, it’s all the time”, she testifies. “I arrived in the street, I arrived 50 meters from the office and there I no longer breathed. I had an anxiety attack, I had to stop my car at a location and it was not It’s not possible to get out of the car.”
Moral and psychological harassment, some police officers have even suffered behavior of a sexual nature. “Sexual harassment, there are comments”explains Eddy Quaino, CGSP delegate. “Here, we go a little further since we mention the fact of having slipped the hand under the t-shirt, we mention the fact of having played with the bra strap under the blouse.”
Unacceptable working conditions for the unions who have decided to react to denounce a situation which has persisted for two years. Some exhausted agents even thought about ending their lives. “They are really distraught and I even heard words like ‘I’m not going to kill myself for them'”Sophie continues. “So it’s serious, if we talk about suicide, it’s because we’re thinking about it…”
So far, several dozen testimonies have been collected. “So if it is necessary to change the entire management, possibly the management teams, it is up to the general commissioner today to take responsibility in the situation which is today openly denounced by almost a tenth of the police personnel federal judiciary of Liège Today, it is in his hands and it is he who must act.says Eddy Quaino.
Breaking the culture of silence and the fear of reprisals, these police officers with hidden faces hope to make things happen before a tragedy takes place within the federal judicial police of Liège.
judicial police of Liège Liège
