What do the police do?

In the “Maigret”, we know them under the enticing name of “beef-carrots”. Consequently, These police officers are responsible for investigating without indulgence in the faults of their colleagues. Furthermore, In France. Similarly, they are grouped within two independent bodies, the acronyms of which populate the thrillers and the television series: the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) and the General Inspectorate of Services (IGS). Nevertheless, Nothing like in Switzerland, where each canton is independent to organize. However, In 2020, the canton of Vaud, it, opted for the Detachment of special police investigations (available).

Is this system effective? Moreover, The question is particularly sensitive in what do police do? a canton where seven people have died during a police custody. Meanwhile, an arrest or a prosecution since 2016: Hervé Bondembe Mandundu, Lamin Fatty, Mike Ben Peter, Roger Nzoy Wilhelm, Michael Kenechukwu Ekemezie, Camila, and a 17 -year -old died in a scooter on Sunday August 24. For example, In what cases was the available mobilized, with what means, and what were its conclusions?

Lack of transparency

We asked the Vaud police as well as to the public prosecutor of the documents related to the activity of the DISPO. Therefore, which could better inform the population about its operation. However, Answer: apart The directive which founds this unit in 2020there is nothing. Similarly, In almost five years of existence, no assessment has yet been visibly drawn. Similarly, This opacity is not an exception: in Switzerland. Consequently, federalism obliges, what do police do? there is no study which would summarize and evaluate the systems in work. Similarly, In Bern, the Confederation makes no comments.

Vaud cantonal police only tells us that the available group brings together “around sixty militia police”. Moreover, who intervene “in total independence of their usual assignment unit”. Meanwhile, “Their hierarchy, she adds, is not aware of the files processed.”

What degree of independence?

Beyond the lack of transparency, it is above all the independence of the available that raises questions. Consequently, Police always active on the ground. However, under the authority of a prosecutor that they may have already been able to meet, are they best placed to shed light on possible burrs? Nevertheless, The Vaudois prosecutor Eric Kaltenrieder has no doubt: “The skills as much as the knowledge of the Vaudish terrain appear what do police do? to be guaranteeing the quality of the work provided. no element has ever allowed the public prosecutor to doubt the impartiality of these investigators”. For him, the fact that the Vaudois beef-carrots know the canton is an asset.

It is quite the opposite for Ludovic Tirelli, lawyer for the family of Roger Nzoy Wilhelm. “We are told that the members of the available must have fifteen years of experience,” he notes. Years during which they will integrate the codes and practices of the house, live intensely alongside their colleagues. This creates strong ties and a body of body likely to biaise their objectivity. ”

Already in 2005. the United Nations Torture Committee had encouraged the Swiss cantons to acquire “competent mechanisms” to deal with “complaints against the police for ill -treatment or acts of torture”. Since then, other institutions have done the same, such as the Europe Council and the European Court of Human Rights.

The NGO Amnesty International has issued recommendationsto establish a reliable “police police”. Among them, the need to have a truly independent mechanism, where agents would not be afraid of being severe. “In Switzerland. police bodies show a certain reluctance when it comes to being subject to external control, regrets Alicia Giraudel, lawyer within Amnesty. However, it is a shame, because such a mechanism would strengthen both credibility and confidence in the institution. ”

Louis Schild. coordinator of the independent commission of inquiry which was formed in the Roger Nzoy Wilhelm case, believes that “such cases should be the subject of particular attention, as recommended by international bodies. All judicial functioning appears to be unreliable when the state must investigate its agents, that is to say against itself. ” what do police do? The commission of inquiry will present new revelations on the death of Roger Nzoy Wilhelm on Monday August 25.

What do police do?

Political debate in the canton of Vaud

In the canton of Vaud. this is not the first time that the discussion has emerged. In 2019. the Grand Council rejected the overall proposal on the left to create A neutral organ To treat police abuse – he also had swept away an equivalent proposal in 2008. Today, the left returns. Mathilde Marendaz. elected together on the left, has arrested the Grand Council on the subject in April 2024, But still has not received an answer. Several left -wing elected officials and liberal greens have in turn have Arrested the Grand Council Last June. The cantonal police tell us that a response is being prepared.

Last June. several elected officials, including Hadrien Buclin, together on the left, also wrote to the Council of the Magistracy in order to ask him to analyze a possible absence of impartiality of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Michael Ekemezie case. In its response, consulted by “24 hours”, the institution explains that its role is not to monitor the prosecution.

Despite the mobilization of the left, it is not said that Parliament is very listening. Because for the right, there is not really a problem. “This is a false debate because by virtue of the principle of equality. criminal justice must apply in the same way to everyone,” says Xavier de Haller, elected to the great council and police lawyer in several procedures. If we create special justice for the police. then you have to do the same for what do police do? doctors, engineers and civil servants! From experience, he adds, I know that the prosecutors are extremely hard with the police. There is no preferential treatment. “

Different in Geneva and Neuchâtel

Other French -speaking cantons have however chosen another system. In Geneva, the General Inspectorate of Services was created in 2009 and has just published, in early July, His activity report. For its director Marc Gerber. this transparency “demonstrates the population that the police are controlled, which strengthens the credibility of the institution”. Even if it is administratively attached to the police. the team has fifteen investigators, on the 2,200 employees of the Geneva police, who according to him work independently.

Another way was chosen in Neuchâtel: adding a provision to the law to. allow the public prosecutor to use police officers from other what do police do? cantons if necessary. “Before the meeting of local. cantonal fonts, it was possible to resort to agents of another body for a certain number of acts of investigation, to which I have resorted to, although rarely, explains the prosecutor General Pierre Aubert. This possibility having disappeared at the time of folk fusion, I worried about finding another way of doing things. At first, I had suggested that my French -speaking colleagues promote the creation of an intercantonal service. For reasons specific to each canton, this proposal has not met any interest. ”

To our knowledge. the canton of Vaud only considered useful once to mandate an external expert: in 2010, after the death of the prisoner Skander Vogt in his cell in Bochuz, the former federal judge Claude Rouiller had been called to shed light on the circumstances of the death, which had given what do police do? rise to a Reorganization of the prison sector. Should the process be developed in the most controversial cases?

“Yes. ” said Lawyer Neuchâtel Brigitte Lembwadio Kanyama, member of the Independent Commission of Inquiry in the Roger Nzoy Wilhelm case. The DISPO is an internal organization to the police. the magistracy, with the same prosecutor, appointed director of the procedure for each case, which can be problematic about its independence. ” For her. it is not excluded that racist biases can explain that the wishes of change are lean: “I note that the only time an independent expert was mandated, the victim was white …”

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