The file has eyes

Other episodesThe science of crime

In 2015, Aurélie recognizes the man who raped her in a photo. Thanks to this picture and the TAJ file, the gendarmes identify the suspect.

Cergy, Central Criminal Intelligence Service of the Judicial Pole of the National Gendarmerie. In a maze of clinically white corridors, the guardians of large files are busy, that of wanted persons, that of fingerprints, perpetrators of terrorist offences... Chief Warrant Officer Laurent Vadebeaux, athletic look, clear eyes, clean cut, regulation blue shirt, driven to his office. And start his computer. Menu. Coded. Access to TAJ validated. TAJ? The criminal record processing file. A file, common to the police and the gendarmerie, which aligns impressive figures: more than 99 million cases listed, around 16 million files of people implicated, including around 5.9 million face photos. Huge ? “Individuals are not merged. And we have loyal customers who appear several times. Up to fifty times…”, tempers Chief Warrant Officer Laurent Vadebeaux, the big boss of the department of the criminal record file (from administration to data supervision) on the gendarmerie side.

He shows us a photo that was the subject of investigations in a criminal case: in the jargon, we speak of a “photo-question”. On the picture, a guy undermined like never before. He wears a black shirt with dog heads: huskies. At his side, a host of Fun Radio, Bruno Guillon. That of the Bruno show on the radio. A party at Johnny? Not even.