Key Benefits:
The Prime Minister,
On the report of the Minister of Interior, Homeland Security and Local Freedoms,
Considering the code of municipalities, including articles L. 412-49, L. 412-51 and L. 412-53;
Considering the general code of territorial authorities, including articles L. 2212-5 and L. 2212-8;
Considering the criminal code, including articles 122-4, 122-5 and 223-6;
Considering the Code of Criminal Procedure, in particular the 2nd of Article 21 and articles 21-2, 73 and 78-6;
Considering the road code, including articles L. 234-3 and L. 234-4;
Having regard to the amended Act No. 83-634 of 13 July 1983 on the rights and obligations of civil servants;
Having regard to Act No. 84-53 of 26 January 1984 as amended with statutory provisions relating to the territorial public service;
Having regard to Act No. 2000-494 of 6 June 2000 establishing a National Commission for Security Ethics;
Having regard to amended Decree No. 94-732 of 24 August 1994 on the special status of the employment framework of municipal police officers;
In view of the amended Decree No. 2000-43 of 20 January 2000 on the specific status of the employment framework of municipal police chiefs;
Having regard to the opinion of the Municipal Police Advisory Board dated 26 April 2002;
Having regard to the opinion of the Superior Council of the Territorial Public Service dated 16 October 2002;
The State Council (inland section) heard,
Decrete:
This Code of Ethics applies to all municipal police officers and municipal police chiefs.
Any breach of the duties set out in this Code exposes the author to a disciplinary penalty, without prejudice, if any, to the penalties provided for in the Criminal Law.
Municipal police officers carry out their duties in accordance with the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights, the Constitution, international conventions and laws.
Municipal polices are open to any French citizen meeting the conditions laid down by the laws and regulations.
Subject to the rules laid down by the Code of Criminal Procedure with regard to their judicial police missions, municipal police officers, with regard to their administrative police missions, are placed under the hierarchical authority of the mayor of the municipality who employs them or with whom they are made available.
The municipal police officer is impartial and loyal to the Republican institutions. He did not depart from his dignity under any circumstances.
It is placed at the public service and behaves exemplaryly towards the public.
It has absolute respect for persons, regardless of nationality or origin, social status or political, religious or philosophical convictions.
The municipal police officer is required, within the limits of his or her powers, to carry out the tasks under the mayor's jurisdiction entrusted to him with the prevention and monitoring of good order, peace, security and public safety.
Where it is authorized, under the conditions provided by law, to use force and, where appropriate, to use its regulatory weapons, the municipal police officer may use it only in self-defence and provided that the defences used are proportionate to the seriousness of the violation to persons or property.
When the municipal police officer determines the identity of the offenders in order to file a record of the contraventions that the law and regulations allow him to verbalize, and that the offender refuses, or is unable to justify his identity, he must immediately report to any judicial police officer of the national police or of the territorially competent national gendarmerie.
If the judicial police officer of the national police or of the territorially competent national gendarmerie orders him to present the offender to him immediately, he must conduct him without delay, using, where appropriate, the strict force necessary and proportionate to that effect. In the absence of this order, the municipal police officer cannot hold the offender.
When the municipal police officer conducts tests of alcoholic impregnation by air expired and either the offender refuses to undergo them, or the result of these tests allows to presume the existence of an alcoholic state, he must report it immediately to any judicial police officer of the national police or the national police officer territorially competent.
If the judicial police officer of the national police or of the territorially competent national gendarmerie orders him to present the offender to him immediately, he must conduct him without delay, using, where appropriate, the strict force necessary and proportionate to that effect. In the absence of this order, the municipal police officer cannot hold the offender.
In the event of a flagrant crime or offence, the municipal police officer must conduct the author without delay to the judicial police officer of the national police or the territorially competent national gendarmerie.
The municipal police officer is required, even when he is not on duty, to intervene on his own initiative to assist any person in danger.
Any person placed at the disposal of a municipal police officer is under the responsibility and protection of the municipal police officer. In no case shall it be subjected by or on the part of third parties to violence or inhuman or degrading treatment.
The municipal police officer who would be a witness to acts prohibited by this section shall be liable for disciplinary and criminal liability if he does not undertake anything to stop them or neglect to bring them to the knowledge of the competent authority.
If the person placed at the disposal of a municipal police officer requires care, the officer relies on medical personnel and, where appropriate, takes measures to protect the life and health of the person.
Municipal police officers may express themselves freely within the limits resulting from the obligation to reserve to which they are held and rules relating to respect for professional discretion and secrecy.
Municipal police officers are prohibited from taking advantage of this quality in order to collect funds or donations from individuals, associations, companies or companies, or to collect funds or donations.
They are also prohibited from mandateing any intermediary for these purposes.
It is also prohibited for them to accumulate their municipal police activity with another professional activity, except in cases of derogations defined by the regulations relating to the accumulated pension, remuneration and duties applicable to public officials.
The mayor defends municipal police officers against threats, violence, assault, insults, defamation or insults that they are victims of in the exercise or during their duties.
Municipal police officers performing supervisory functions make the necessary decisions and enforce them; they translate them into orders that must be accurate and accompanied by explanations for their proper execution.
They are responsible for the orders they give, their execution and their consequences.
Municipal police officers must faithfully execute orders given to them by the mayor of the municipality or, where appropriate, by the municipal police officers who supervise them.
Municipal police officers have a duty to report to the mayor, or, where appropriate, to the municipal police officers responsible for their supervision, the execution of the missions they received or, possibly, reasons that made their execution impossible.
The municipal police officer is required to comply with the instructions of the mayor and, where applicable, municipal police officers responsible for his supervision, except in cases where the order is manifestly illegal and in a manner that seriously compromises public interest.
Any refusal to execute an order that would not correspond to the conditions set out in the preceding paragraph entails the responsibility of the municipal police officer.
If a municipal police officer believes that he is in the presence of a manifestly illegal and in-kind order to seriously jeopardize a public interest, he or she has a duty to disclose his objections to the mayor, and, if so, to the municipal police officer who supervises him, expressly indicating the illegal meaning he or she attaches to the lawful order. He must be taken note of his opposition. If the order is maintained, it must be written.
Implementing a manifestly unlawful order of the mayor and, where appropriate, a municipal police officer responsible for his supervision, cannot exempt the municipal police officer from his personal responsibility.
In the event of an audit of the organization and operation of a municipal police service provided for in the provisions of the general code of territorial authorities, municipal police officers are required to lend the contest to them.
They are subject to the same obligation in the event of audits conducted at the request of the National Commission for Security Ethics.
For the purposes of Article 20 of this Decree in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, the words "the provisions of the general code of territorial authorities" are replaced by the words "the legislative and regulatory provisions relating to the municipal regime of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon".
The mayor shall make the necessary arrangements to ensure that this Code of Ethics for Municipal Police Officers is made known to each of them.
The Minister of the Interior, Homeland Security and Local Freedoms, the Guard of the Seals, Minister of Justice, Minister of the Public Service, State Reform and Land Management and the Minister of the Overseas are responsible, each with regard to him, for the execution of this decree, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
Done in Paris on 1 August 2003.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
By the Prime Minister:
The Minister of the Interior,
of Internal Security
and local freedoms,
Nicolas Sarkozy
The Seal Guard, Minister of Justice,
Dominica Perben
The Minister of Public Service,
of State Reform
and landscaping,
Jean-Paul Delevoye
The overseas minister,
Brigitte Girardin
