Section 1: General provisions

The judicial police shall be exercised, under the direction of the public prosecutor, by the officers, civil servants and agents designated in this title.

The public prosecutor and the examining magistrate are free to choose the panels to which the judicial police officers belong.

The judicial police are placed, in each jurisdiction of the court of appeal, under the supervision of the public prosecutor and under the control of the investigating chamber in accordance with the articles 224 et seq.

It is responsible, in accordance with the distinctions established in this title, for recording offences against criminal law, gathering evidence and seeking out the perpetrators until an investigation is opened. When an investigation is opened, it executes the delegations of the investigating courts and defies their requisitions. .

The judicial police comprise: 1° Officers of the judicial police; 2° Judicial police officers and deputy judicial police officers; 3° Investigation assistants of the national police and the national gendarmerie; 4° Officials and agents to whom certain judicial police functions are assigned by law.

The categories of departments or units in which the judicial police officers and agents referred to in sections II and III of this chapter carry out their usual duties, the procedures for creating these departments or units and their territorial jurisdiction criteria are determined by decree in the Council of State issued on the report of the Minister of Justice and the Minister concerned. The territorial jurisdiction of these departments…

Administrative investigations into the conduct of a judicial police officer or agent in the exercise of a judicial police mission involve the Inspectorate General of Justice in the relevant investigation department. They may be ordered by the Minister of Justice and are then directed by a magistrate.

Officers and agents of the judicial police are obliged to receive complaints lodged by victims of criminal offences, including when these complaints are lodged with a judicial police service or unit that is territorially incompetent. In this case, the complaint is, where appropriate, forwarded to the territorially competent service or unit. All complaints filed are recorded in a report and a receipt is immediately issued to the victim, which mentions…

Where, in the cases and in accordance with the procedures laid down by decree, the victim’s complaint is submitted electronically, the record of receipt of the complaint shall be drawn up in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 801-1 and the receipt and, where applicable, a copy of the report may be sent to the victim as soon as possible, in accordance with the procedures laid down by…

Any victim of a criminal offence may lodge a complaint and have his or her statement taken by the judicial police services or units by an audiovisual means of telecommunication guaranteeing the confidentiality of the transmission. The victim is informed of his or her rights as set out in article 10-2. The record of receipt of the complaint and the receipt shall be drawn up and sent in accordance with…