On Monday, January 25, 2021, the Beauvau of Security was launched, aiming to organize a national debate on the role of security forces in France and propose a reform of the French police as part of the future orientation and programming law for internal security. To this end, the government announced it would organize extensive consultations involving all security stakeholders in our country.
While police unions and gendarmerie representatives have been gathered to present the roadmap for this national debate, which will take place until next May, Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, lamented in a letter to Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, that representatives of municipal police forces were not included in this reflection. Yet, the government’s most recent white paper on internal security, published last November, acknowledged their essential role.
Here are the words of the president of the Nice Côte-d’Azur Metropolis:
Third force of internal security in France, municipal police forces are indispensable actors of public security in our country. They have been at the forefront for many years, exercising essential functions for everyday security and working closely with other security forces in our country.
How can we forget the murders of Aurélie Fouquet and Clarissa Jean-Philippe, municipal police officers who gave their lives for their commitment to our security? How can we forget that it was municipal police officers who were the first to intervene during the terrible attack on our Notre Dame basilica in Nice last October 29?
I ask the Minister of the Interior to include representatives of municipal police forces in the reflections, and to proceed with the reestablishment of the national advisory commission for municipal police, which has not been reassembled following municipal elections, so that it can also participate in this debate.
The partnership work of all actors concerned with the security of the French people is more necessary than ever to build the vigilant society I wish for, and for which I am ready to act alongside Gérald Darmanin.
