France’s ‘police of police’ whip up a storm on the Riviera
By Hélène Constanty
In 2013, the French police internal investigation agency, the IGPN, opened a branch in Nice, the capital of the French Riviera where an environment of organised crime, prostitution and drugs trafficking feeds accusations of corruption within the local police. But the actions of the IGPN branch, and notably the methods of its commander, have shaken the morale of officers and sparked an internal inquiry into what one drugs squad chief called “unspeakable and unjust procedures, bordering on harassment”. Hélène Constanty reports.
At the end of 2013, a branch of the French police internal investigation agency, the Inspection générale de la police nationale (IGPN), which polices the police, was opened in the Riviera city of Nice. This south-eastern stretch of Mediterranean coastline is notoriously home to organised crime, prostitution and drugs trafficking, and amid an environment of criminal money-spinning fly accusations of corruption within the police.
