The number of police officers in Marseille decreased by 4.5% during Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. The fall is not dizzying and the report of the Court of Auditors, made public on Sunday, October 20, which reveals that it is not even particularly scathing. But these figures are enough to undermine several years of government communication, embodied in particular by the former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
In detail, the report states “a clear deterioration in the number of police officers assigned to Marseille between 2016 and 2020”, since it went from 4,232 to 3,953 agents, all services combined (public security, judicial police, border police). In 2021, a few months after his arrival at Place Beauvau, Gérald Darmanin announced “300 more police officers” by 2023.
Three years later, the Court of Auditors confirmed the arrival of 436 peace guards, but observed that “These reinforcements (…) did not fill the exits » and that the staff shortage remains high: with 4,064 agents, the figure remains the same” lower than in 2017». Also remember that many police officers were recruited as soon as they finished their training: ” HE [policiers] School dropouts are looking to leave the district as soon as possible, suggesting an employment pattern that risks deteriorating again starting this year in 2024.
“Important reinforcements fighting to increase numbers”
A regular traveler in the city of Marseille, the former Minister of the Interior, now deputy (Renaissance) for the North, presented another version of his assessment, on October 17, day X: “In 2020, Marseille had 2,210 field police officers. There were 2,799 when I left. Therefore, 589 net police positions have been created for Marseillais. »
For his calculation, the former French police officer chose in particular to exclude agents (- 15.5% between 2016 and 2023) and security assistants (- 61%), but includes above all the 380 agents of the four Republican Security Companies (CRS). ) mobilized in Marseille, who are not properly part of the active population of Marseille and which, for the most part, are not recently “created” positions. For the Court of Accounts, “only the three CRS deployed [à Marseille]as well as the CRS 81, used very regularly, allow us to show the population that the presence on the ground has been reinforced”although “CRS units […] They intend to project themselves throughout the territory.
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