The level of recruitment for the national police competition has fallen and certain candidates are sometimes admitted with “catastrophic” marks. But what exactly is their entrance exam?
"Should police officers be better selected? Most certainly." This sentence pronounced by Gérald Darmanin in July 2023 had aroused the anger of police unions. Before the Senate, the Minister of the Interior regretted the low level of education of most of the people recruited as peacekeepers. "Contemptuous" words for the National Association of Judicial Police and a speech that is too general for the taste of Thierry Clair, deputy secretary of the Unsa-Police who recalled on franceinfo at the time of the controversy that if "very young colleagues enter the police without university or professional experience", conversely "many overqualified police officers, with a bac 3, bac 4 education level, are officers or peacekeepers".
It is clear that the recruitment criteria for access to the two-year training course (one in a police academy and one in training) have been revised downwards in recent years. “We can be admitted with catastrophic grades, a 7/20 for example” said several internal sources at the police house at La Croix in 2021. And if the peace guard competition was redesigned in 2022, the eliminatory grades remain well below the average: 5/20 for the four eligibility tests and 7/20 for admission to training after the sports test and the interview.
The sorting of candidates for the police entrance exam is first done on four tests: resolution of practical cases with a documentary file, general knowledge questionnaire, modern language questionnaire and psychotechnical test. This last, ungraded test should make it possible to assess the candidate's profile, emotional stability and relationship to authority. The other tests make it possible to judge the capacities of understanding, reflection and analysis necessary for their future missions, but also their knowledge in particular of French institutions.
In 40 questions, the general knowledge test questions candidates on their knowledge of French history, national political institutions and current affairs, particularly politics and geopolitics. The themes are varied, but the questions do not specifically relate to French laws or law. Here is a selection of the questions asked in the peacekeeper competition in 2022:
As for the practical case test, candidates for the police competition are placed in a situation and must provide responses adapted to the problems encountered, but are provided with a 15-page file providing legal texts and all the necessary information to respond to the questions “It is therefore not necessary to have police knowledge for this test” and use your reflection and “pure common sense” according to the advice of police commander and proofreader Armelle C.
