He refuses to look in the rearview mirror, his gaze focused on the future. There is no question for him of saying that the police “were better before”. But inevitably, when he has just received the National Order of Merit at the rank of knight, divisional commissioner Éric Slangen – 62 years old – agrees to talk about his career, which began at the Maisons-Alfort police station (Val-de-Marne ) in 1986. At the time, he was what we still called a “police inspector”. Charles Pasqua is Minister of the Interior. “I took care of complaints and minor legal matters. The investigative police were based on flagrant offenses and hearings.” Things fall through, they need to be dealt with. The film “L 627” by Bertrand Tavernier, released in 1992, forever illustrates the paltry means with which police officers work.
His second position completely changes the way he works. Alongside around a hundred colleagues, he participated in the creation of the Val-de-Marne Departmental Security (today Territorial Security), the first in France. “We had to carry out initiative investigations. We had cars, radios and mechanical Olympias (typewriters). At the police station, they told us: It is not possible. There, everything was possible.” Fighting drug trafficking means dealing with heroin and calling out death dealers. Between overdoses and AIDS, those who are addicted to this hard drug do not last long.
The Internet revolution
The first high-profile case of SD 94 was the dismantling of trafficking in false documents in a workers’ hostel in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, against a backdrop of illegal alien networks. The hearing minutes are not thick, everything fits on a few sheets. The doctor and the lawyer do not yet have their place in the procedure. After twelve years of “happiness police” spent in Créteil and after having climbed the steps to that of commander, Éric Slangen decided to become commissioner. “I like being chief,” smiles Éric Slangen, who then discovers the scope of the police professions. For his first position as boss, he opened the doors of the Melun police station.
The technical and scientific police are progressing. The Automated Fingerprint File (FAED) and the National Automated Genetic Fingerprint File (FNAEG) – created in 1987 and 1998 – are “a crucial aid” for investigators, as the number of people registered increases. Judicial identity groups are created, “experts” are no longer mobilized only on big cases.
Today, nothing is easier for an investigator than to check the background of a suspect in police custody. In the 1980s, it’s not the same at all. “We picked up the phone and dialed 02 690 to reach the department where the file was located. Everything was manual,” recalls Éric Slangen. The Internet will obviously revolutionize the search for information. “Before, we were groping forward. Now, investigators are doing preparatory work before making arrests.”
The procedure: “90% form and 10% substance”
From his three years spent in Paris, in the second district of the Paris Judicial Police which deals with crimes, he keeps the memory of the serial rapists arrested sometimes fifteen years after the attacks. Bank robberies are starting to disappear, armed robberies are taking place to the detriment of businesses, and the age of delinquents is decreasing year by year. And since the 2004 law, the payment of “snitches” has been regulated by law. “A very good thing in terms of transparency, it protects the police officer.”
It was in 2009 that Éric Slangen returned to Seine-et-Marne, where he took over as head of Departmental Security. He will stay there for five years. His service will receive Interior Minister Manuel Valls himself, who came very early one morning in January 2014 to the SD77 premises, to congratulate the investigators for having dismantled a vast network of Albanian and Romanian burglars. In 38 years of policing, Éric Slangen has seen the procedure become more and more cumbersome. A concern according to him – this will be one of his rare criticisms – when it comes to cases of small and medium delinquency, this mass investigation police handled by the police stations: “It is 90% formal and 10 % background “.
In 2014, he took charge of the Torcy district, which covers Noisiel, Pontault-Combault, Chelles and Lagny-sur-Marne and has a priority security zone (ZSP) and a district of republican reconquest (QRR). The opportunity for him to describe the fight against drug trafficking and violent theft carried out by his staff as “effective”.
Securing the Olympic nautical stadium in focus
As for the reform carried out in 2020, he is satisfied with it. Especially since, according to him, the grouping of the Noisiel and Pontault-Combault police stations is embodied in the Torcy police headquarters, which was built last year.
It is there that this man with a strong character, loyal and invested in his mission wanted to receive his medal, alongside the police officers rewarded for their courage, when the Torcy and Pontault-Combault police stations were attacked, during the riots in end of June 2023. Antoine Salmon, former police boss in Seine-et-Marne recently promoted to deputy director of public order and traffic at the police headquarters in Paris, came to present him with his decoration.
Today, Éric Slangen has his sights set on the 2024 Olympic Games, since the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium will host the rowing and canoeing events. A real security issue: no less than 30,000 spectators are expected on the site every day but also along the pedestrian path that leads there. A new challenge that excites him.
