suspended prison sentence for two police officers for “untimely” use of gas?

A textbook case – and also a case of conscience – for two police officers from the anti-crime brigade from Montereau-Fault-Yonne, in Seine-et-Marne. They appeared on Monday January 6, 2025 at the Fontainebleau criminal court, for police violence presumed. The textbook case raises the now classic question of the interception ofa moped rider recalcitrant during a refusal to comply manifest. In addition, the case of conscience questions the use of tear gas to achieve this. This is the difficult question that the judges will have to resolve after the five hours of tense hearing, the main interest of which will have been to understand the great difficulty and also the great misery of the profession of field police officer. The judgment was reserved.

Refusal to comply boulevard de Surville

The facts, in this case quite simple, took place in Montereau, boulevard de Surville, on August 18, 2024, around 8 p.m. The Bac crew comes across a scooter patched up with tape and without a license plate, which has the appearance of a stolen machine. Moreover, the 17 year old pilot does not have a helmet or gloves. A thorough examination will show that he also does not have insurance or a road safety certificate and that the two-wheeler is of more than dubious origin.

The officials activated the “2 tone”, caught up with him and, arriving at him, ordered him to stop. The other stares at them and accelerated. As the crew approaches an “a priori hostile” zone, where this type of pursuit presents risks for passers-by, the police decide to be more persuasive. In this case by taking out their tear gas bombs. The videos from urban cameras broadcast at the hearing will show three successive jets of gas: one directed towards the ground and the others horizontally.

Unimpressed, the moped rider then jumps on the sidewalk to escape his pursuers, but swerves before sprawling and fleeing again, this time on foot, and without shoes… which he lost in his fall. He will be intercepted a few meters further on without any after-effects other than that of the fall. None particularly at eye level, due to tear gas, as evidenced by the police identification photos.

Complaint from the prosecution

The whole affair would have ended there, without even a complaint from the teenager's father, if the public prosecutor had not decided to start prosecutions…not against the offender, but against the two police officers. Reasons retained by the magistrates of the Melun public prosecutor's office, specializing in minors' cases: untimely use of carbonated gases constituting a case of “aggravated violence”. Without forgetting the police report drawn up by the crew chief, upon returning from the mission, who failed to specify the use of gases.

The two police officers are asked questions under the dismayed gaze of around twenty colleagues who came as a support delegation. Not a word in the room, but a heavy atmosphere, especially when the two police officers have to justify themselves.

Suspended prison sentence required

One totals in his career, 25 years of intervention brigade without a blame on increasingly risky missions. The other, younger, holds the two medals (bronze and silver) for his courage and his involvement during the riots of summer 2023.

But that evening, they shouldn't have pulled out the sodas! This is what the prosecutor indicates in his requisitions while asking the crucial question: “How far can the police go to carry out an arrest? In this case, the answer is clear. We had to let it go! “.

In their pleadings, the lawyers of the two police officers demanded relax by reversing the prosecutor's question: “It's their job to arrest offenders, how can they do it if we deny them the means?” »

The prosecutor demanded 3 months and 6 months suspended prison sentence against the defendants, accompanied by 2 years and 4 years ofban on missions “public highway” and “judicial police”. Response February 3.

Jean-François CALTOT

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