French Code of Criminal Procedure
In forceThe national police officers referred to in 3° of Article 16 may only be authorised to effectively exercise the powers attached to their status as judicial police officers when they are assigned to a post involving the exercise of such powers.
For each civil servant assigned to such a post, a request for authorisation is sent by the head of the department to which the civil servant belongs, to the public prosecutor at the court of appeal within whose jurisdiction the judicial police officer's first assignment takes place.
The application shall specify the nature of the duties entrusted to the judicial police officer and the department or unit within which he or she will be called upon to perform them on a regular basis.
It also specifies whether, during a previous assignment, the person has been definitively sanctioned for disciplinary faults constituting breaches of honour, probity or serious professional shortcomings.
The Public Prosecutor to whom the request is made shall be informed, as soon as possible, of any sanctions imposed for breaches of honour, probity or serious professional shortcomings committed during a previous assignment where, at the time of the request:
1° Disciplinary proceedings were in progress;
2° The sanction imposed for these breaches was not definitive.
If the judicial police officer is assigned to a national gendarmerie unit, the request for authorisation is transmitted according to the distinctions provided for in a, b or c of article R. 14.
Periods during which the police officers referred to in 3° of article 16 are given the status of judicial police officer for the purposes of and as part of their initial training are not considered to be first assignments within the meaning of the penultimate paragraph of article 16. In this case, an authorisation is issued for the entire duration of the training by the public prosecutor at the court of appeal within whose jurisdiction the training centre is located and ends at the end of the training.
By way of derogation from the previous paragraph, police officers from internal competitive examinations and professional access routes who hold a judicial police officer authorisation retain the benefit of this authorisation during their training and at the end of their schooling.
