Section 2: Judicial police officers

The following have the status of judicial police officers: 1° Mayors and their deputies; 2° Gendarmerie officers and ranks, gendarmes nominatively designated by order of the ministers of justice and the interior, after the assent of a commission; 3° Inspectors general, active police deputy directors, controllers general, police commissioners and police officers; 4° Civil servants from the national police management and enforcement corps nominatively designated by order of the ministers…

When serving in the operational reserve of the national police or in the operational reserve of the national gendarmerie, civil servants of the national police and military personnel of the national gendarmerie who are active or retired and who have had the status of judicial police officer during their activity may, after updating their knowledge and once it is established that they meet the conditions of experience and aptitude required,…

Within one month of being notified of the decision to refuse, suspend or withdraw authorisation, the judicial police officer may ask the public prosecutor to withdraw the decision. The public prosecutor must give a ruling within one month. If he fails to do so, his silence will be deemed to constitute rejection of the request.

Within one month of the explicit or implicit rejection of the request provided for in the previous article, the judicial police officer may lodge an appeal with a commission composed of three judges of the Court of Cassation holding the rank of chamber president or councillor. These magistrates are appointed annually, together with three alternates, by the bureau of the Cour de cassation. The functions of the public prosecutor are…

The committee gives a reasoned decision. The hearing takes place and the decision is given in chambers. The debate is oral; the claimant may be heard in person at his request or that of his counsel; he may be assisted by his counsel. The procedure before the commission is laid down by a decree in the Conseil d’Etat.

The judicial police officers exercise the powers defined in article 14; they receive complaints and denunciations; they carry out preliminary investigations under the conditions provided for by articles 75 to 78. In the case of flagrant crimes and offences, they exercise the powers conferred on them by the articles 53 to 67. They have the right to directly request the assistance of the police to carry out their mission.

Judicial police officers have jurisdiction within the territorial limits where they carry out their usual duties. Officers of the judicial police, temporarily placed at the disposal of a service other than that to which they are assigned, have the same territorial jurisdiction as that of the officers of the judicial police of the host service. Officers of the judicial police may travel throughout France to pursue their investigations and to…

Officers of the judicial police are required to inform the public prosecutor without delay of crimes, offences and contraventions of which they have knowledge. As soon as they have completed their operations, they must send him directly the original and a copy of the reports they have drawn up; all acts and documents relating thereto shall be sent to him at the same time; the objects seized shall be made…

The public prosecutor’s rating of the authorised judicial police officer is taken into account for any promotion decision.