Transforming partnership? Strategy of responsabilization and police reform in the French operational partnership groups

In France, the Operational Partnership Groups (Groupes de partenariat opérationnel, GPOs), launched in 2019 as part of the “day-to-day” security policing reform, consolidate the local partnerships that have been in place since the 1980s. They are based on a strategy of responsibilization and a “working together” approach, with the national police taking joint action with other local players (municipalities, social landlords, associations, etc.). In this article, we analyse these new initiatives from two angles. Firstly, the question of responsibilization is raised: to what extent do the police services guide the actions of the partners involved? Secondly, we might ask to what extent the implementation of these measures is transforming the way in which the police nationale, which has traditionally been reactive and at a distance from the territories, operate. Based on a research combining interviews and direct observations in four towns in the Yvelines (Paris area), we highlight the local acclimatisation logics at the heart of the GPOs, as well as the constant negotiations that underpin them, that lead to an inflexion of the police nationale’s strategies of responsibilization. Ultimately, while there have been only limited changes in the way the police operate, these GPOs are part of a quest to symbolically re-legitimise the institution in the local area.