French Code of Criminal Procedure
In forceThe 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 of justice and the interior, after the assent of a commission.
The composition of the commission provided for in 2° and 4° is determined by a decree in the Council of State issued on the report of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior.
Also qualified as judicial police officers are persons exercising the functions of director or deputy director of the judicial police and director or deputy director of the gendarmerie.
The civil servants mentioned in 2° to 4° above may not actually exercise the powers attached to their status as judicial police officers or rely on this status unless they are assigned to a post involving such exercise and by virtue of a decision by the public prosecutor at the court of appeal personally authorising them to do so.The exercise of these powers is temporarily suspended while they participate, as a formed unit, in a law enforcement operation.
However, the gendarmes mentioned in 2° and the civil servants mentioned in 4° may only receive the authorisation provided for in the eighth paragraph if they have completed at least thirty months of service from the start of their initial training, of which at least six months have been in a position involving the exercise of the powers attaching to the status of judicial police officer, and, secondly, if they are assigned either to a department or a category of departments determined pursuant to the'article 15-1 and appearing on a list determined by order of the Ministers of Justice and the Interior, or, on an exclusive basis, in a formation of a service mentioned by the same order.
The authorisation is issued by the public prosecutor at the court of appeal within whose jurisdiction the official is first assigned. It is valid for the entire duration of his or her duties, including in the event of a change of assignment.
The conditions for granting, withdrawing and suspending for a fixed period the authorisation provided for in the ninth and penultimate paragraphs of this article are set by decree in the Council of State issued on the report of the Minister of Justice and the ministers concerned.
