The prefect of Isère, Louis Laugier, was appointed director general of the national police this Thursday, October 31. This former section leader of an Alpine hunter battalion arrived in Grenoble in August 2023.
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After weeks of procrastination, the police officers hold on to their new boss. Louis Laugier, aged 59, was appointed this Thursday, October 31 in the Council of Ministers, director general of the national police (DGPN). The prefect of Isère takes over from Frédéric Veaux at the head of some 150,000 police officers in the country.
Unlike some of his predecessors, like Frédéric Veaux (2020-2024) or Frédéric Péchenard (2007-2012), Louis Laugier is not a former top cop of the PJ (judicial police) who became the boss of the PN. This Saint-Cyr graduate began his career as an active army officer, as section leader of a battalion of Alpine hunters.
But he still knows the blue house: he was in turn sub-prefect, chief of staff to the prefect of Yonne, then secretary general of the Hautes-Alpes prefecture before joining the national police as chief of the personnel management department, then deputy director of human resources.
He then served as prefect of Aveyron (September 2015-December 2017), Savoie (December 2017-August 2020), Haut-Rhin (August 2020-August 2023) and finally Isère.
Louis Laugier won a long political standoff against, in particular, Alexandre Brugère, former chief of staff of Gérald Darmanin, Fabrice Gardon, boss of the Parisian judicial police, or even Hugues Moutouh, very right-wing prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes.
After a series of consultations, Louis Laugier's sensitivity to the themes of internal security, at the heart of his action in Isère, undoubtedly tipped the scales for the current tenant of Beauvau Bruno Retailleau, who “wanted to take his time” and did not intend to have his choice dictated to him by his predecessor.
This is therefore the end of a long series that has been open for six months in anticipation of the retirement at the end of September of Frédéric Veaux, extended due to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “Louis Laugier is, for me, a prefect who has always been available and who has an excellent vision of the issues. He knows and appreciates working in partnership and, when the action begins, he is determined”told AFP the Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant, who announced on October 24 the promotion “logic” by Louis Laugier.
“His good knowledge of security issues will be assets for the Grenoble metropolitan area, as well as nationally”echoes the PCF mayor of Échirolles Amandine Demore to AFP, who has no doubt that Louis Laugier “will be sensitive to the challenges of strengthening the workforce in the face of the influence of drug trafficking in the territory of southern Grenoble”.
This Parisian by birth, once expected to take the head of the gendarmerie, must already face several challenges: the unions have expressed their concern about the 2025 budget project unveiled recently and which certainly provides for an increase of nearly 600 million euros of credits dedicated to security, but also a pause in the planned increases in police and gendarmerie personnel.
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