“I’m really starting to be worried about the level of activity on this floor. We are witnessing a real disconnect between our workforce and activity. » Rodolphe Jarry, the public prosecutor of Pau, weighed his words, Thursday January 23, when taking stock of the activity of the Pau public prosecutor’s office in 2024.
The figures unfortunately speak for themselves: 16,047 incidents observed (police and gendarmerie) in 2024, compared to 15,748 in 2023 and 14,610 in 2022, i.e. a 10% increase. Concerning police custody, “we have exceeded the symbolic threshold of 2,000 over a year”, with 2,111 in 2024 compared to 1,980 in 2023 and 1,550 in 2022.
Another symbolic threshold with the bar of 20,000 procedures recorded in 2024 at the registry office, compared to 17,180 in 2022: 25% increase over two years, for the same workforce. If we look at the immediate appearance procedures, it is even worse: in this sector, the increase is 100% in two years, from 116 cases in 2022 to 232 in 2024. “Here too, while keeping the same number of clerks and prosecutors,” notes the prosecutor.
“It gets physical”
As a result, the hours are no longer the same for public prosecutors. “On Tuesday alone, the duty officer had 29 police custody to deal with, and another twenty on Wednesday. The registry is forced to ask other people for help to record everything, because everything falls at the same time. And if it was only during the day, but we also have to count on the calls at night. This accumulation means that it becomes physical for the magistrates, for the civil servants too. »
On Tuesday alone, the duty officer had 29 police custody to deal with, and another twenty on Wednesday
The prosecutor and his services are trying to find solutions to these exponential increases, by referring only the most serious facts to the hearing, by favoring “at all costs” penal orders and appearances on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC) …
-This has the effect of clogging up these procedures – 164% increase in CRPC in two years – and considerably lengthening delays. “It takes 6 months for criminal orders, which is not normal; for summons before the criminal court, it’s 10 months when it should be 6,” laments Rodolphe Jarry.
Priority for reinforcements?
“We take the tide,” he summarizes, specifying that these strong increases are particularly noticeable in Béarn and are not found everywhere. The best witness to this degraded situation in the Béarn judicial system is probably this tool developed by the Ministry of Justice and whose figures were revealed at the end of 2024: a “Z-score” within which the 164 French jurisdictions were classified, from the most suffering to the least exposed.
In this ranking, the Pau floor occupies a sad 4th place. “This is a sign that tensions are starting to become extremely high. This also means that we will be given priority for additional staff,” says Rodolphe Jarry, who will meet the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, in a few days.
Pau, declassified jurisdiction
Today, six magistrates share the task at the Pau public prosecutor’s office, which represents a ratio of 1.57 magistrates per 100,000 inhabitants. This is significantly below the national average, which is 3.2, but the comparison with the average of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe – 11.2 magistrates per 100,000 inhabitants – is even more glaring.
“If we were in the national average, we would have 12 magistrates, and 42 for the Council of Europe average,” figures Rodolphe Jarry. Who knows how to rely on a solid team of magistrates, clerks and justice attachés. “They are super committed. This is what keeps us on course. » For how long?
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