Ugo Pizzo, a divisional commissioner currently serving as chief of staff in Melun (Seine-et-Marne), will take up the deputy territorial director post within the national police force at Reunion on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. The appointment was made despite two divisional commissioners of equivalent rank and qualifications already stationed on the island having applied for the same role, and it has generated sharp discontent within police ranks.
The position opened after Jean-Pierre Frédéric’s departure. Frédéric has been under investigation by the IGPN, the national police inspectorate, since February 2026 for alleged sexual harassment of a police officer in 2025. When the deputy director role was declared vacant in April 2026, a call for applications drew candidates from across France.
Two senior officers already working at Reunion put themselves forward. Divisional Commissioner Guillaume Maniglier has led the territorial criminal investigation service since September 2024. Divisional Commissioner Jérôme Besse, a Reunion native, heads the territorial intelligence service and had previously served on the island between 2017 and 2021 before returning in September 2024. Both were passed over in favor of Pizzo, according to an official internal police memo.
The decision landed badly.
Police staff members speaking anonymously questioned the logic of appointing someone unfamiliar with Reunion and without overseas experience to a sensitive position, particularly when two locally rooted candidates with deep knowledge of island realities were available. One officer pointed out that Pizzo and Besse graduated from the same promotion at the National Police Academy in Saint-Cyr-au-Mont d’Or and both received their divisional commissioner rank in early 2026, placing them on identical professional footing. Another official invoked the principle of local preference when qualifications are equal, arguing that Maniglier’s role heading the criminal investigation service gave him superior terrain knowledge and more relevant experience than the incoming appointee from mainland France.
What changed the outcome, according to sources, was the intervention of Prefect Patrice Latron. Although the local hierarchy had not favored Pizzo, Latron, whose advisory opinion was legally required by the ministry, reportedly insisted that the number two position in local police leadership go to a senior official with no prior or current connection to Reunion. One police source suggested that prefects increasingly prioritize officials willing to implement Paris directives without question over officers with ground-level engagement on the island.
Prefect Latron did not respond to requests for comment from Imaz Press. Both Besse and Maniglier declined to discuss the matter, with Maniglier stating he would not comment personally or on behalf of the police commissioners’ union.
Gilles Clain, national executive secretary of the Unité 974 union, raised pointed questions about the selection. His organization had fought for legal priority placement for officers based on their material and moral interests, enabling overseas-origin police to serve their home territories. Yet when senior positions were at stake, he said, the application of that principle appeared questionable. Clain asked directly whether the passed-over candidates lacked competence and experience, or whether their Reunion connections and territorial knowledge simply carried no weight in the process. He pledged continued vigilance on the matter.
Jacky Balmine, general secretary of the CGTR union, issued a statement Tuesday morning denouncing what he described as “renewed contempt for Reunion competencies and leadership.”
The appointment arrives amid broader tensions over mainland selections to senior island posts. Jean-Xavier Bello’s appointment as general director of the CGSS drew union and political opposition, while Alexandre Lamothe’s selection to lead the Pôle Régional des Musiques Actuelles (PRMA) in September 2025 sparked controversy when he was chosen over local figure Stéphane Grondin.
Whether Pizzo’s arrival in September will ease or deepen those tensions remains the question that Clain, for one, has made clear he intends to keep asking.