Judicial police officers

Article 20

(Ordinance nº 60-529 of June 4, 1960 art. 2 Official Journal of June 8, 1960) (Law n ° 72-1226 of December 29, 1972 art. 19 Official Journal of December 30, 1972) (Law n ° 78-788 of July 28, 1978 art. 4 Official Journal of July 29, 1978) (Law n ° 85-1196 of November 18, 1985 art. 3-i, 3-ii and 8 Official Journal of November 19, 1985 in force on January 1, 1986)(Law n ° 87-1130 of December 31, 1987 Official Journal of January 1, 1988)(Law nº 96-647 of July 22, 1996 art. 21 Official Journal of July 23, 1996) (Law n ° 2001-1062 of November 15, 2001 art. 13 Official Journal of November 16, 2001) (Law n ° 2006-64 of January 23, 2006 art. 16 II Official Journal of January 24, 2006)
The following are judicial police officers:
1 ° Gendarmes who do not have the status of judicial police officer;
2 ° The civil servants who are members of the supervisory and enforcement body of the national police who do not have the status of judicial police officer, subject to the provisions concerning the civil servants referred to in 4 ° and 5 ° below;
3º (Repealed)
4 ° The peacekeepers from the former corps of officers and guards of the national police appointed as trainees before December 31, 1985, when they have at least two years of service as tenured members and have passed the tests of a technical examination under conditions set by decree of the Council of State or hold the professional qualifications allowing access to the higher grade;
5 ° The peacekeepers from the former body of police investigators, appointed trainees before March 1, 1979, when they have at least two years of service as tenured staff and meet the conditions of competence provided for by law n ° 78-788 of July 28, 1978 reforming the criminal procedure on the judicial police and the jury or have passed the tests of a technical examination under conditions set by decree in the Council of State or hold professional qualifications allowing access to the next higher grade.

However, the officials mentioned in 1 ° to 5 ° above cannot effectively exercise the powers attached to their quality of judicial police officer and avail themselves of this quality only if they are assigned to a job involving this exercise; the exercise of these powers is temporarily suspended during the time when they participate, as a constituted unit, in a law enforcement operation.
The mission of the judicial police officers is:
To assist, in the exercise of their functions, the judicial police officers;
To note the crimes, misdemeanors or contraventions and to draw up a report;
To receive by report the statements made to them by all persons likely to provide them with clues, evidence and information on the perpetrators and accomplices of these offenses.
Judicial police officers do not have the power to decide on custody measures.

Article 20-1

(inserted by Law n ° 2003-239 of March 18, 2003 art. 9 Official Journal of March 19, 2003)   Retired national police officers and members of the national gendarmerie who had during their activity the status of judicial police officer or agent may benefit from the status of judicial police officer when they are called to under the civil reserve of the national police or under the operational reserve of the national gendarmerie. A Council of State decree sets the conditions for the application of this article. It specifies the experience conditions and the qualities required to benefit from the status of judicial police officer under this article.

Article 21

(Law nº 66-493 of July 9, 1966 art. 2 Official Journal of July 10, 1966) (Law n ° 78-788 of July 28, 1978 art. 5 Official Journal of July 29, 1978) (Law n ° 85-1196 of November 18, 1985 art. 4 and 8 Official Journal of November 19, 1985 in force on January 1, 1986)(Law n ° 97-1019 of October 28, 1997 art. 6 Official Journal of November 8, 1997) (Law n ° 2001-1062 of November 15, 2001 art. 13 Official Journal of November 16, 2001)(Law n ° 2003-239 of March 18, 2003 art. 90 Official Journal of March 19, 2003) (Law n ° 2006-449 of April 18, 2006 art. 23 Official Journal of April 19, 2006) (Law nº 2007-297 of March 5, 2007 art. 74 III 1º Official Journal of March 7, 2007)
The following are assistant judicial police officers:
1 ° Civil servants of active national police services who do not meet the conditions provided for in article 20;
1º bis Volunteers serving as soldiers in the gendarmerie;
1 ° ter The security assistants mentioned in article 36 of law n ° 95-73 of 21 January 1995 on orientation and programming relating to security;
1º quater Paris surveillance agents;
1 ° quinquies The soldiers serving under the operational reserve of the national gendarmerie not fulfilling the conditions provided for in article 20-1;
2 ° Municipal police officers;
3 ° The rural guards, when they act for the exercise of the attributions fixed in the last paragraph of article L. 2213-18 of the general code of the territorial collectivities.
Their mission is:
To assist, in the exercise of their functions, the judicial police officers;
To report to their superiors for any crimes, misdemeanors or contraventions of which they are aware;
To note, by complying with the orders of their leaders, the infringements of the penal law and to collect all the information in order to discover the authors of these infringements, the whole within the framework and in the forms envisaged by the organic or special laws that are unique to them;
To record by report the contraventions of the provisions of the Highway Code, the list of which is fixed by decree of the Council of State.
When they notice an offense by report, the assistant judicial police officers can collect any observations of the offender.

Article 21-1

(inserted by Law nº 85-1196 of November 18, 1985 art. 5 and 8 Official Journal of November 19, 1985 in force on January 1, 1986)
Judicial police officers and assistant judicial police officers have jurisdiction within the territorial limits where they exercise their usual functions as well as within those where the judicial police officer responsible for the national police service or the gendarmerie unit with which they were made available by name on a temporary basis. When they assist a judicial police officer, they have jurisdiction within the territorial limits where the latter exercises his powers in application of the provisions of article 18.

Article 21-2

(inserted by Law n ° 99-291 of April 15, 1999 art. 13 Official Journal of April 16, 1999)
Without prejudice to the obligation to report to the mayor that they comply with article 21, municipal police officers immediately report to any judicial police officer of the national police or the national gendarmerie with territorial jurisdiction for all crimes, misdemeanors or contraventions of which they are aware.
They immediately send their reports and minutes simultaneously to the mayor and, through the judicial police officers mentioned in the previous paragraph, to the public prosecutor.