Agnès Naudin is a former police captain. She was sacked because in several books she denounced the system and the false documents produced by some of her colleagues… She has been fighting in court for five years. Zoé Thomas met her at the International Journalism Conference in Tours, France, where she talked about her battle against the system.
“I’m a journalist” is how Agnès Naudin introduces herself. Those are the first words she utters. Yet when she was young, she didn’t want to be a journalist. “When I was young, I wanted to be a policewoman.”
She was a police captain for 13 years. She has denounced this institution in five books. The police attacked her over her first book: “Affaires de famille”.
“They are attacking me on the grounds of breaches of professional secrecy, because I recounted investigations that were under investigation at the time the book came out.”
In the interests of transparency, however, she had alerted her superiors. “They had the opportunity to re-read the book and change certain passages,” she explained. “They let the book come out and the media coverage began. In the end, I find myself before the courts”. And these episodes are taking place five years after the first book came out, in 2018.
“I will become a journalist like I became a writer”
Her career as a whistleblower began very early. As a police officer, she points out the problems: “There are things that aren’t working, we need to find solutions”. The first thing a police officer learns is not to make waves, and your best weapon is your pen. “If you speak out, there are reprisals, and then you become a whistleblower,” she added.
“I wasn’t aware of the risks”
No solution was found. So Agnès decided to denounce the system. “We’re seen as a pain in the arse. But we have an obligation to report problems. When we bring up problems that are too important, we get run over by the others in the institution,” she said.
Next steps
In 2023, Agnès received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a three-year police ban for her first book. She has appealed and the hearing will take place in Versailles on 26 June.
On the administrative level, she has challenged her dismissal before the administrative court and this is currently under investigation.
As a writer, she revealed that she is taking up fiction: “Testifying in books, and writing the books I’ve written, doesn’t allow me to make a living.”
As a journalist, she wants to do everything and cover all kinds of subjects. “If I can avoid being labelled an ex-policewoman,” she said “The aim must always be to denounce so that people know what’s going on.”