The Jura Government is transmitting to Parliament a draft partial revision of the law on the cantonal police, the health law and the decree setting the emoluments of the cantonal administration.
The completely revised cantonal police law came into force on 1is January 2016. However, in April 2016, European authorities adopted new rules on data protection in order to better regulate the processing of personal data, in particular Directive (EU) 2016/680 relating to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data for criminal purposes. This directive, which entered into force in 2018, is considered a development of the Schengen acquis that Switzerland is committed to introducing into its national law. The resumption of the latter also binds the cantons. Thus, the Jura and Neuchâtel authorities revised in 2022 the intercantonal agreement relating to data protection and transparency in the cantons of Jura and Neuchâtel, which entered into force on 1is October 2022. It was still necessary to adapt the provisions relating to data protection contained in the Jura law on the cantonal police, so as to be in line with European requirements in this area.
The data protection rules contained in the LPol have also been adapted on the basis of new case law from the Federal Court setting relatively strict requirements for the processing of personal data, in particular in connection with automated vehicle search and traffic monitoring. through automatic license plate readers.
In addition, like other cantonal police forces and as a response to a need expressed by certain state services, the Jura cantonal police established in 2020, in collaboration with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, a management concept cantonal threat and violence prevention (MPV). This is a concept aimed at preventing acts of violence by people said to be at risk. The functioning of such a concept requires interdisciplinary collaboration within the framework of a network of partners, in particular with the administrative units of the State, regularly confronted with threatening people. A “Threats and Violence Prevention” group (MPV group) was also created within the cantonal police. In order to clearly delineate the very specific principles surrounding such a concept, in particular with a view to ensuring its transparency and better protection of personal data processed in this context, special MPV legal provisions have been integrated into the draft revision of the LPol. These provisions also provide for a lifting of official secrecy, respectively of professional secrecy, for partners’ advisors in the context of their relations with the MPV group. In this sense, a legal basis has also been added in the health law for example. It will allow people practicing a health profession to be able to communicate certain information to the cantonal police, without committing a violation of professional secrecy.
Furthermore, the LPol revision procedure was also used to evaluate the application of the law since its entry into force in 2016 and determine whether it was necessary to make other adaptations. Thus, a certain number of provisions contained in the LPol have been modified terminologically, editorially or procedurally, and others have been added, in order to comply with changes in practice and developments in case law, or to compensate for a lack of legal basis. For example, following the adoption of the Federal Law on the Prohibition of Concealing the Face, a new provision was introduced into the LPol in order to determine the applicable procedure and the competent authority to authorize persons to conceal their faces. face in public places. This modification led to the revision of the decree setting the emoluments of the cantonal administration in the sense that two new emoluments were created.
Finally, and in anticipation of the arrival of the municipality of Moutier in the canton of Jura, the possibility for municipalities to hire public security assistants for the collection of fines has been added to the LPol. This will notably allow the municipality of Moutier to entrust the authority to collect certain administrative fines on its municipal territory to the administrative police officers it currently employs and who will follow the training of public security assistants.
