Towards a closure of the Briançon police station?

-Hautes-Alpes-

This is Alpes 1 information: the Court of Auditors is proposing to the Ministry of the Interior to review the “ areas of competence between the police and the national gendarmerie “. Briançon is one of them.

The debate is a real sea serpent. It began in 2009, the year when the national gendarmerie was attached to the Ministry of the Interior, then depending on the same public authority as the national police. Very quickly the question of areas of competence arises.

The Court of Auditors considers it essential to review the map

In its report published on January 13, the Court of Auditors wants “ appreciate the effectiveness » of the two security forces. She believes that it is “essential that the Ministry of the Interior takes up this subject and makes the necessary adjustments “. Adjustments which could lead, if we follow the conclusions, to the closure of the Briançon police station.

We have to go back to November 2020, when the White Paper on internal security was published. The latter proposes to entrust municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants to the gendarmerie.

In September 2022, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Gérald Darmanin, rejected this proposal during a hearing before the Senate. A year later, he indicated to the Court of Auditors that a reflection on the subject could be undertaken, but “ not before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games ».

But in October 2023, the discussion is relaunched. The government is once again asking the two security forces to establish a list of possible transfers. The General Directorates of the National Police and Gendarmerie then agree on 14 National Police districts, transferable to the gendarmerie. Briançon is one of them.

“Maintaining these municipalities in police zones is a very costly choice, which deprives the national police of a pool of personnel who could usefully be redeployed to areas facing more significant delinquency issues”, Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors, in its report of January 13, relies on this list. Because with a covered population of 10,875 people, Briançon is the fifth smallest police district in France. She is “ below the minimum threshold set by the regulations for the establishment of the state police regime “, SO “ very labor-intensive.

Its maintenance is a choice “ very costly (…) which deprives the national police of a pool of personnel who could usefully be redeployed to areas facing more significant delinquency issues.” A maintenance “neither satisfactory nor sustainable” for the Court, which recommends “ transfer without delay to the national gendarmerie » this constituency, a transfer « which could intervene immediately by order of the Minister of the Interior.

Alliance threatens to step up

Contacted, the Alliance police union in the Hautes-Alpes believes that this is a “ very sensitive subject, it deals above all with humanityn,” explains Vincent Guillermin, his departmental secretary.

Before the publication of this report, the opinion of the trade union organizations was not requested “ while we have known and recognized expertise regarding security. Nothing will be done against the interests of the agents, with the stroke of a pen and without any guarantee. There are much more urgent projects and wanting to make people believe that the two forces are not working together or poorly is a lack of knowledge of the field.”

C. Cava Michard