Les citoyens peuvent-ils participer à la production de la sécurité ?

“Tensions between young people and the police, which undermine the legitimacy of the police and hamper their effectiveness, are a recurring problem. Urban riots, police violence, the unease of police officers and the sense of exclusion felt by local residents remain burning issues in France. In this sensitive context, dialogue seems to be at a standstill. A “citizens’ consensus conference” devoted to the issue of police-population rapprochement in working-class neighborhoods was held in December 2018 in Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône), which provides some leads on the subject. The challenge of this event – initiated by young people from these neighborhoods (accompanied by ENTPE’s Urban Policies and Citizenship Unesco Chair) – was to equip “lay” citizens as well as gendarmes and police officers, so that they could debate and reflect on joint recommendations at the end of a weekend. This experimental approach, which aims to explore the conditions for the possibility of new spaces for the co-production of public action, is in line with a “zeitgeist” in which more and more professionals and elected representatives are coming round to the idea that citizen participation is now a necessity.”