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 we better select police officers? Most certainly.” This sentence pronounced by Gérald Darmanin in July 2023 aroused the anger of the 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 was too general for the taste of Thierry Clair, deputy secretary of 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 an educational level of bac +3, bac +4, are ranks or guards of the peace”.
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. The cross in 2021. And if the peace guard competition was redesigned in 2022, the elimination scores remain well below average: 5/20 for the four eligibility tests and 7/20 for admission to training after the sports event and maintenance.
MCQs and practical cases
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 questions asked for the peacekeeper competition in 2022 :
- Under the first article of the Constitution of October 4, 1958, France is a republic:
A. community, secular, democratic and proletarian
B. unitary, secular, democratic and partnership
C. indivisible, secular, democratic and social - The direct representative of the Prime Minister and each minister in the department is:
A. prefect
B. president of the departmental council
C. president of the regional council - In France, the death penalty was abolished under the presidency of:
A. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
B. François Mitterrand
C. Jacques Chirac - Which of the following nuclear power plants was permanently shut down in 2020?
A. Fessenheim
B. Chinon
C. Tricastin - The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014:
A. in Odessa
B. in Mariupol
C. in Donbass
As for the practical case test, candidates for the police competition are put in a situation and must provide answers adapted to the problems encountered, but are provided with a 15-page file providing legal texts and all the information necessary to respond to the questions. 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 the police commander and proofreader Armelle C.