De policier à communicant dans la police nationale : les conditions sociales d’une conversion improbable
Résumé
This ethnographical survey conducted in the Police’s Information and Communication Service (SICoP) focuses on the French policemen who become communication officers and the conditions of their professional conversion. It examines their profiles and their careers, as well as the construction of their competence and identity. Communication is widely integrated and concerned with processes of professionalization in the French police. The service recruits more and more communication specialists, but it consists predominantly of policemen from street-level offices or criminal police who lack of experience in communication. Hence the critical role of the training of recruits, through formal and informal teaching of professional techniques and norms. But the skills acquired are in conflict with the bureaucratic management of the institution, where communication remains highly controlled and subjected to the concerns and the interests of political power. Moreover, the position of police communication officers is marginal within their profession. In order to legitimate their existence and their competence, they try to establish a link between the role of policeman and the role of communication officer, through both objective and subjective means.
Cette enquête ethnographique réalisée au sein du Service d’information et de communication de la police (SICoP) se concentre sur les policiers devenus communicants et les conditions de leur conversion professionnelle. Elle interroge leurs profils et leurs parcours, ainsi que la construction de leur compétence et de leur identité. La communication fait l’objet d’une intégration avancée et de processus de professionnalisation dans la police nationale. Si le service observé s’adjoint de plus en plus les compétences de spécialistes, il se compose majoritairement de policiers issus des services actifs et dépourvus d’expérience dans la communication. En découle le rôle crucial de la formation des recrues, par une inculcation formelle et, surtout, informelle des techniques et des normes de travail. Mais les compétences acquises se heurtent au fonctionnement bureaucratique de l’institution, où la communication reste étroitement contrôlée et subordonnée aux préoccupations et aux intérêts du pouvoir politique. De surcroît, les policiers communicants occupent une position marginale au sein de leur groupe professionnel. Pour légitimer leur existence et leur compétence, ils s’efforcent d’établir une continuité entre le rôle de policier et celui de communicant, par des opérations à la fois objectives et subjectives. This ethnographical survey conducted in the Police’s Information and Communication Service (SICoP) focuses on the French policemen who become communication officers and the conditions of their professional conversion. It examines their profiles and their careers, as well as the construction of their competence and identity. Communication is widely integrated and concerned with processes of professionalization in the French police. The service recruits more and more communication specialists, but it consists predominantly of policemen from street-level offices or criminal police who lack of experience in communication. Hence the critical role of the training of recruits, through formal and informal teaching of professional techniques and norms. But the skills acquired are in conflict with the bureaucratic management of the institution, where communication remains highly controlled and subjected to the concerns and the interests of political power. Moreover, the position of police communication officers is marginal within their profession. In order to legitimate their existence and their competence, they try to establish a link between the role of policeman and the role of communication officer, through both objective and subjective means.
Mots clés
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)