Morocco Considers Granting Judicial Police Status to Auxiliary Forces Amid COVID-19

The elements of the auxiliary forces have been called upon during this coronavirus period. They are deployed on the ground during patrols or at checkpoints alongside the police or gendarmes, reports Maghreb Intelligence. Their interventions to enforce the containment measures are considered effective (arrests, issuance of reports, conducting investigations and referral to the public prosecutor’s office). Except that they are often under fire for criticism.

The reason is that they do not have the status of judicial police. These auxiliary forces have always worked under the orders of the authorities (caïds, pachas, governors and walis). Yet they do have the quality of judicial police officers.

In order to fill this legal void, the Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, is in the process of drafting a text that will confer the status of judicial police to the auxiliary forces.