The French president, Emmanuel Macron, stepped into the shoes of a gendarme this Monday and guided a traffic stop on the highway, under the watchful eye of a real agent. He has even tested a radar and fired it himself. He has done so in Lot-et-Garonne, a department in the south of the country, where he has traveled to announce the creation of 238 new gendarmerie brigades that will serve to reinforce security, especially in the most isolated places, and fight against delinquency.
Demonstrations, riots, increasing violence… Security is one of the biggest concerns of the French, but there are remote areas where the nearest police station can be dozens of kilometers away. Increasing the presence of gendarmes in these places was an electoral promise that Macron made in the 2022 presidential campaign, in which he was re-elected. He had promised 200 additional groups, so finally the announced figure is higher.
Some of these units will be fixed (barracks), but the majority will be mobile units, which can travel to the most remote rural areas, depending on the needs. “It is a historic investment,” said Macron in Tonneins, in the aforementioned department, where he attended accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
According to the Elysée, more than 500 brigades of this type have been eliminated in recent decades and this measure seeks to “adapt the territorial coverage of the gendarmerie to demographic and crime changes.” Darmanin has said that it is about “recovering the presence of law enforcement on the territory.”
In total, “there will be 2,000 more gendarmes on the ground,” the Minister of the Interior congratulated himself. These brigades, however, will not arrive suddenly, but will be created gradually, between now and 2027. The first will be formed in November. The locations have been determined after a study to assess which are the most neglected areas.
Something as simple as filing a complaint, receiving assistance if you have been the victim of an attack, or completing some administrative procedure that requires the presence of a law enforcement officer. There are areas that do not have these services at hand. Interior warns that it will allow existing groups, which were saturated, to be relieved of work.
Police and gendarmes have been denouncing the lack of troops they have for some time. France is just a few months away from celebrating the Olympic Games and security is one of the big concerns. The wave of riots last June following the death of a 17-year-old boy by a police officer has increased this concern. It resulted in thousands of arrests and extensive damage to public furniture and buildings such as town halls and schools.
Faced with this situation, gendarmes and police warn: there are more and more casualties and the agents feel unmotivated. According to a report from the French Court of Auditors, in recent years departures in the Police and Gendarmerie have reached record numbers. In 2022, there were 2,500 casualties in the first corps and 3,000 in the second.