A record 10,000 gendarmes were injured last year while carrying out their duties across France – up 4 percent from 2023 – one of the country’s top police chiefs said on Thursday.
"It is unprecedented. It shows you the level of engagement of the officers and the amount of violence in society," Hubert Bonneau, head of the National Gendarmerie, told television station BFM.
"There is no such thing as a harmless patrol. You never know who you're going to run into during an operation."
Of the 10,000 injuries recorded in 2024, 5,300 occurred while gendarmes were on duty. The rest happened while travelling to work or during training exercises.
Official data shows that between 35 and 50 percent of all injuries took place in France’s overseas territories.
Attacks on officers
Bonneau, who took charge of the 130,000-strong force last October, said 63 gendarmes were shot at last year, while 1,000 were attacked with weapons ranging from guns and knives to blunt instruments.
"People are driving vehicles at them," he added.
His comments came a day after L'Essor, the gendarmerie's in-house newspaper, reported that an officer had suffered multiple injuries when a car driving the wrong way struck him at a motorway toll booth between Nantua and Oyonnax in south-eastern France.
"Every 20 minutes, a gendarme is confronted by someone who just refuses to obey a request to stop," Bonneau said. "It's just the everyday reality of the men and women serving as gendarmes."
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In a wide-ranging interview, Bonneau also spoke about the fight against drug networks, terrorism and rising violence in society – including the potential for social unrest.
Commenting on an internal memo instructing commanders to prepare for possible conflict, he said: "We're in a violent society and we're in a difficult international context.
"We've seen fighting for three years in Ukraine, which is important in the national framework for preparing an armed force such as the gendarmerie. Our mission is not only to do everyday policing but also – as an armed force – we must be ready to take on other eventualities such as aggression on mainland France."
