“It’s okay, he’s here.” The little dot flashes again on the map which unfolds on the computer screen and the investigators from the interdepartmental judicial police service (SIPJ) of Rouen let out a “phew” of relief, the hunt can continue.
From a narrow office at the central police station, they track, using his cell phone, a suspect who is driving towards the town where he has arranged to meet his victim. Under threat, the man demanded that she give him tens of thousands of euros in cash.
“We have a big system,” explains Commissioner Caroline Ravoux, number 3 of the SIPJ. “The idea is to do something flagrant, to catch him when he has the money.” His face lights up. “It’s going to move…”
On the ground, his men spotted their target and discreetly took him in line. Slowly he approached the meeting point. Final instructions. “As soon as he gets to the car, let’s shove,” orders the head of the “on-call”.
The moment has arrived. “Contact the vehicle, we can go.” A few seconds, then the radio sputters again. “Interpellation made”.
“This is a well-conducted affair,” says one of the cops. Commissioner Ravoux enjoys it. “That’s the most exciting part of our job: catching bad guys.”
The 230 men and women of the SIPJ of Rouen are the distant heirs of the famous “Tiger brigades”, these mobile police units created in 1907 to dismantle the criminal gangs which were then sowing disorder throughout the country.
– “Steamroller” –
From their creator Georges Clemenceau, today’s PJ cops have kept an acronym – the double profile of the mustachioed face of the former President of the Council and the feline which served as his nickname – and a mission.
Combat, under the authority of justice, “high-end” crime: the most serious, the most complicated, the most sensitive cases.
For more than a century, their investigations have inspired millions of pages of “thrillers”, thousands of films or television series and a host of recurring heroes, from Jules Maigret to Laure Berthaud.
In their geographic jurisdiction (Seine-Maritime and Eure), the portfolio of very real cases of the “PJistes” of Rouen is overflowing.
In mid-May, it was enriched by the investigation into the bloody escape of inmate Mohamed Amra from the prison van which was taking him back to the Evreux remand center. Their other cases are less publicized.
That Monday, the boss of the criminal squad swallowed kilometers of video surveillance images to the point of indigestion. The day before, at dawn, a man was stabbed to death in a street in the city center. His entire team is on deck.
“The first moments of an investigation are crucial. People’s memories are still fresh,” professes Nicolas. “If something emerges within 24 to 72 hours after the fact, it can happen very quickly. Otherwise…”
“One of our favorite images is that of the steamroller,” Elodie intervenes.
“We deploy in numbers to cover all angles, all unfinished business,” continues the brigadier. “Going through hours of videos is not always very exciting, but it is often what makes the difference between a successful investigation and a failed investigation.”
– Commitment –
A few offices away, Jérôme is reviewing the details of a violent extortion case. Three men suspected of ransoming and beating a group of prostitutes. Tomorrow they will be arrested.
“The PJ is first and foremost a quality of work. We are given the means to work correctly,” assures the brigadier. “That was really no longer the case in public security. So I came back here to find a pack spirit, a police family.”
In all offices, the same commitment, the same passion for investigation.
“When it comes to homicides, our daily lives are quite far from the serial killers of literature, we are more in social poverty,” concedes Nicolas. “But what keeps us going is seeking and finding.”
“Our motivation is also to be able to say to a victim ‘we caught the guy who did this to you’”, adds Caroline Ravoux.
A constant investment. Day, night. Often to the detriment of the rest.
“We are very attached to our investigations,” confirms Dorine, from the narcotics brigade, mother of a 5-year-old girl. “Our +customers+ never stop, so neither do we. A little delay on a line or surveillance and we lose track of them.”
“We take our files everywhere, at home, on vacation. It has a real impact on our private life,” adds Nicolas. “We never completely close the shop.”
– Blues and blues –
The PJ requires absolute availability from its police officers. They come there for that. They leave for that too.
“Not difficult to understand,” grumbles Arnaud, from the “anti-gang”, thirty years of PJ under the clock. “Our public security colleagues earn more than us at an equivalent rank. Most of them are not on duty. We eat and sleep with our things.”
So in recent years, vocations have become rare in the “investigation” sector. Colleagues slam the door. And it is no longer rare for their positions to remain vacant for an entire year.
“The crisis is partly due to availability. There are still very flexible schedules, sleepless nights,” recognizes Commissioner Jérémie Dumont, boss of the SIPJ. “But there is also the complexity of the matter. Criminal procedure is more and more complicated.”
Many investigators also regret having been left out of the priorities of the “police department”, far behind everyday delinquency or anti-terrorism.
So when their minister Gérald Darmanin promises more “blue” in the streets, the PJists have the “blues”.
“The PJ has become the poor relation of the police, there is less interest in the judiciary,” regrets Caroline Ravoux. “In matters of public roads, the effect of police action seems immediate,” adds Jérémie Dumont, “while the PJ is the reign of the long term.”
Two years before retirement, the boss of the financial brigade is not losing her temper.
“Finance, no one cares. It’s catastrophic,” complains Myriam MP. “We are drowning in cases, we lack resources, especially human resources. Many offenses are not dealt with.”
– PJ Spirit –
And the controversial reform of the PJ initiated at the start of the year has not helped anything. Now under the orders of police officers often from other sectors, investigators fear having to abandon criminals from the “high end of the spectrum” for more immediate cases.
“Our bosses are no longer interested in the substance of business but in statistics,” grumbles Arnaud. “We are no longer old-fashioned chickens, we are becoming civil servants.”
“The investigators have fears but, for the moment, they are still choosing their cases,” tempers their leader.
“At the PJ, we were seen as kings because we did what we wanted. There, we underwent reform,” summarizes Eric. “The elders are still there, we are still protected by our hierarchy,” continues the commander. “But for how long ?”
All that remains is the commitment. And a certain idea of the police.
“The PJ is a family. It is for her and for the victims that we continue to move forward,” adds Arnaud. “And then we have a passion for investigations. It’s a game that we like.”
A game made of unexpected events and twists and turns. A month after the arrest of their extortionist, the “financial” police officers took his victim into custody, who was in turn suspected of fraud. The world of crime is sometimes small…
