Article 7 of the law of July 18th 2018 about the Police and the General Inspection of the Police foresees that the IGP undertakes studies upon request of the relevant ministry, of the Minister of Justice and of the General Attorney.
The term “studies” should be interpreted in a general sense including the conduct of audits. Its mission involves a quality control that focuses on the effectiveness and the efficiency of Police action as well as on the quality of service offered to the citizen.
This control method also concerns the impact on Police objectives, the proper functioning of police service, an in-depth analysis of the functioning of a particular service and/or carrying out of a specific mission or task but also the risks the Police are exposed to.
The objective of the quality control is to inform the contracting authority, among others, about the following issues:
- The state of administrative or operational practices and their compliance with legal, regulatory and internal norms;
- The quality of police operations and their compliance with its objectives ;
- The efforts in terms of savings, effectiveness and efficiency in order to achieve the objectives.
It belongs to the parent Minister to determine what priority the General Inspection of the Police needs to attribute to its various missions assigned by the competent authorities (studies, audits, /advice papers).
The procedure of an audit is split into five phases (triggering stage, documentation, field, conclusion and follow-up) and relies on the method taught at the French Institute of Internal Audits and Control (“Institut français de l’audit et du contrôle internes”, IFACI) where IGP auditors participate in selected training courses. The procedure of a study builds on social sciences research methods.
While doing a study or audit, the IGP benefits from the complete cooperation of the Police which communicates all requested information without delay. The results are submitted to the parent minister, if the study or audit was done on his behalf, to the minister of justice or to the state prosecutor.