IGPN annual report: drop in fatal shootings and increase in integrity violations

The “police of the police”, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) unveiled its annual report on Wednesday September 23. Among the main points: a drop in fatal shootings by police officers and a 45% increase in “violations of integrity” in the police in 2025.

Fatal police shootings are thus down in 2025 compared to 2024. The IGPN recorded a drop in the number of deaths linked to firearm shootings by police officers, with 12 deaths in 2025 compared to 16 deaths in 2024. Among these twelve deaths, none are linked to refusals to comply as was already the case in 2024, after three deaths in 2023, including Nahel. On the other hand, there were 19% more serious injuries last year compared to 2024.

“What is notable this year is the evolution not of the total number of investigations, but the evolution of the structure of the portfolio since the number of cases for use of force, and in particular the use of weapons, are ultimately quite a minority. This represents approximately 30% of IGPN cases, when it was 50% last year, observed Wednesday on franceinfo Stéphane Hardouin, magistrate and director of the IGPN. And when we go back to 2019-2020, there were the 'yellow vests', we were really in a very majority share.

“For cases of fatal shootings or those resulting in serious injuries, we have cases which then were two-thirds, or even three-quarters, judicially justified.”

The bill passed in July, described as a “license to kill” for police officers by its opponents, is accused of organizing police impunity. "This is not a presumption of self-defense but of the use of weapons, assures Stéphane Hardouin. I remind you that the police, like the gendarmes, have a monopoly on legitimate force. of indictment, and perhaps the custody regime".

The IGPN "conducted 235 legal investigations into breaches of integrity" and noted an increase of more than 45% in breaches of integrity, a third of which relate to acts of corruption. The head of the IGPN makes a link with the fight against drug banditry. “Unquestionably, criminal groups have integrated and use human vulnerabilities which result in corruption,” recognizes Stéphane Hardouin.

If the number of investigations is increasing, he nevertheless recalls that there are “153,000 police officers”. But the risk is not underestimated, he assures. “That’s why we have equipped ourselves with algorithms and we use special investigative techniques” that have never been seen before.

To detect a police officer who is more fragile than another, “the French anti-corruption agency has made us work on the detection of what we call weak signals,” explains the director of the IGPN. he concludes.