Why deadly police shootings are on the rise on France’s roads

The teenager was shot dead during a routine traffic stop in a Paris suburb on Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, Nahel was pulled over for traffic violations. Police initially claimed one officer used his firearm because Nahel was driving at him, but a video of the events on social media showed this was not the case.

In the now infamous video of Nahel’s tragic death, the two policemen stand on the side of a stationary yellow Mercedes, with one pointing his firearm at the driver. “You are going to get a bullet in the head,” a voice is heard saying. The officer shoots the boy point-blank as the car quickly drives away, reaching a crossroad a few metres ahead before crashing. Nahel died from his wounds shortly after.

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Increase in police shootings

This is the third lethal shooting of its kind to take place in France this year. In 2022, a record 13 people were killed by police for failing to stop for the police. That’s six times more than in 2021.

While police say fatal shootings during road checks can be attributed to an increase in cases of non-compliance and dangerous behaviour at the wheel, many experts say the correlation doesn’t explain the spike in deadly shootings.

All roads seem to lead back to a key security bill that was passed by the French government in 2017.

Law change due to terror attacks

The law was designed to combat terrorism, with it making permanent some of the unique measures introduced in the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks and the state of emergency that followed.

Human rights groups at the time fervently criticised the law, saying it dangerously broadened the legal framework for when a police officer could use their firearm. As for the numbers, they speak for themselves.

French researchers carried out a study to understand the spike in fatal shootings by police and found that five times as many people in vehicles were shot by police after the law was introduced. While cases of non-compliance increased by about 35% on average since 2017, the researches argued this didn’t justify the 350% increase in fatal shootings on vehicles for the same period. “The 2017 law has … put citizens’ lives at greater risk from the police,” they told French daily Libération.

Before the law was enacted, police officers in France (like all citizens) were subject to the principles of self-defense and could only respond “proportionately” to an “actual and real” attack.

“Self-defense is still the base principle,” associate researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research and Penal Institutions (CESDIP) Mathieu Zagrodzki told FRANCE 24. “But [the 2017 law] also allows the use of firearms when a driver is likely to endanger the physical integrity or life of others.”

France under fire from UN

Expanding the use of firearms but maintaining the two pillars of “absolute necessity” and “strict proportionality” of legitimate defense have led to confusion. Experts like Zagrodzki argue that this ambiguity could result inpolice officers feeling permitted to use their weapons in incorrect circumstances.

France has also recently been under fire at the UN for police violence.

Within the French police force, resorting to violence is not uncommon, nor is racial and religious discrimination. Activists have renewed calls to tackle what they see as such systemic abuse, particularly in neighbourhoods like the one in which Nahel lived, where many residents struggle with poverty alongsideracial and other discrimination.  

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Regardless of the why, in the case of Nahel’s murder, “[for an officer to] utilise the self-defense clause is highly questionable. Police officers were on the side of the car and the vehicle was clearly not heading in their direction,” Zagrodzki concludes.

What the police say

Despite the correlation between fatal police shootings and the 2017 security bill, police authorities say the rise is mostly due to an increase in cases of non-compliance.

“If you compare the number of non-compliance cases, which have been rising steadily, with the number of shootings, the proportions haven’t changed that much,” Thierry Clair, General Secretary of the UNSA, the police union, told FRANCE 24.

“A failure to comply case occurs every 20 minutes in France,” he added, referencing a statistic that is often hammered home regularly by police unions but also the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

Fear of new point’s system

The French Highway Code stipulates that a driver can be stopped by police to have their driving documents checked at any time without any visible violation of the law.

Cases of non-compliance have risen sharply since a points system for French driving licenses was introduced in the 1990s. Drivers start with 12 points and if they commit traffic violations, lose points. Police unions have argued that the system incentivises drivers to flee in order to avoid losing their critical driving licence and their potential jobs that require it.

In 1993, a year after the introduction of the points-based driving licence, the number of refusals to comply was 1,099. Thirty years later, this figure has increased 25-fold.

“The term ‘failure to comply’ covers a wide variety of situations,” explains Thierry Clair. “It can be in the context of a standard roadside check, when an offence is detected, or during an urban rodeo with a driver who does anything and everything” to evade police, he said. 

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A widespread increase in suspected drug-related road checks has also played a key role, increasing the potential for cases of non-compliance. 453,000 drug screenings were carried out in 2020. This number went up by nearly 30% since 2018, and is set to double in the coming years, according to the French road safety authority.

Lastly, a lack of insurance can also lead precarious drivers to refuse an inspection. According to the French Guarantee Fund (Fonds de Garantie des Victimes), there were nearly 30,000 victims of road accidents caused by uninsured drivers in 2019.

“Justice for Nahel”

The young driver’s death has triggered two nights of violent unrest in Paris, its suburbs, and other cities across France, with clashes between protestors and police taking place amid burning cars.

In the now infamous video of Nahel’s tragic death, the two policemen stand on the side of a stationary yellow Mercedes, with one pointing his firearm at the driver. “You are going to get a bullet in the head,” a voice is heard saying. The officer shoots the boy point-blank as the car quickly drives away, reaching a crossroad a few metres ahead before crashing. Nahel died from his wounds shortly after.

The young driver’s death has triggered two nights of violent unrest in Paris, its suburbs, and other cities across France, with clashes between protestors and police taking place amid burning cars.

On Thursday, Nanterre’s prosecutor – the suburb in which Nahel was killed – announced that the police officer who shot the young man would be detained on charges of intentional homicide as the use of a firearm against the teen was not legally justified.

France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the teenager’s death, and the police officer who shot Nahel is currently under investigation. He has been detained on charges of intentional homicide.  

While Nahel’s fatal shooting on Tuesday was not the first of its kind this year, 2023 has seen a drop in the number of people killed after not complying with a traffic stop so far, yet it is only June.

There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, none in 2019 and 6 in both 2018 and 2017, according to a Reuters tally, which clearly shows the majority of victims since 2017 were of Black and Arab origin.

France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the teenager’s death, and the police officer who shot Nahel is currently under investigation. He has been detained on charges of intentional homicide.