Frédéric Anselme

Frédéric Anselme, known as Freddy, is the chief of the GIPN and the officer responsible for its SWAT team. At the police briefing on security after the Rue Verbier killing, he reports that the DCRI found no cause for suspicion in its investigation of the local Muslim community, then advocates increased firepower and surveillance rather than entertaining the possibility of a bomb threat. He is presented as physically formidable and operationally forceful, yet also as a figure whose certainty unsettles colleagues and whose deployment toward Monaco is read as a sign that he believes a major crisis is beginning.

Identity and Introduction

Anselme appears at a meeting convened by Agnès Dantier, alongside the examining magistrate Albert Reboux and public prosecutor Jules Frènes. Agnès welcomes him as the GIPN chief and hands over the security question, describing herself as no better placed than Frènes to answer it. The exchange establishes Anselme as the specialist whose authority is invoked when the investigation turns from its immediate murder inquiry to the possibility of a wider threat.

His formal title is matched by a deliberately memorable physical description. Darac regards him as exceptionally fit, with a close-fitting, tightly cropped head, and as someone who would lead his SWAT team into and out of extreme danger if the Ministry ordered it. Darac privately considers him certifiably insane, a judgment that conveys both admiration for Anselme’s nerve and unease at the degree of risk he appears willing to accept.

Security Assessment and Methods

Addressing the briefing, Anselme reports that the DCRI has conducted a thorough investigation of the local Muslim situation and found it clean. His assessment directly counters the suspicion that the Rue Verbier killing might indicate a threat from that community. The briefing therefore distinguishes the evidentiary work of investigating a population from the security response Anselme proposes: the former has cleared the local Muslim community, while the latter remains oriented toward preparedness for a possible attack.

When the possibility of a bomb is raised, Anselme dismisses it with a chopping gesture. His proposed watchwords are increased firepower and surveillance; he says that anyone attempting to detonate a bomb would discover what would happen to them. The force of the response does not demonstrate that a bomb threat exists. Instead, it shows how quickly his security posture moves from uncertainty to deterrence and readiness, a stance that draws disquiet even from Max Perand, normally not the loudest voice in the room.

Authority and Relationships

Agnès calls Anselme Freddy, a familiar form of his name that she enjoys using precisely because it seems ill-suited to him. The contrast is part of the meeting’s characterization: he is an imposing, highly fit SWAT commander, but the diminutive address punctures the severity of his official persona. Darac and Frankie recognize Agnès’s teasing familiarity, while the wider discussion still treats Anselme as the operational expert whose answer is required.

His high-pitched voice is another contrast that the narration emphasizes. It is described as an anomaly that nobody has been rash enough to point out to him. The detail does not lessen his authority; rather, it sets his vocal manner against his physical image and uncompromising recommendations. The people around him appear to accommodate the discrepancy without challenging him directly.

Deployment and Narrative Role

After the briefing, Frankie reports that Anselme’s SWAT team has left for Monaco. Judging by his expression, she says, he thinks World War Three has started. Granot immediately asks whether Anselme has received special orders, a question that leaves the reason for the deployment unresolved in this exchange. The episode extends the earlier portrait of a commander whose response to danger is rapid and forceful, while showing how his movements can amplify anxiety among colleagues.

Anselme’s brief appearances mark the point where the investigation’s civic and evidentiary questions meet the machinery of security. His clear assessment of the local Muslim community resists the assumption that a murder at a prayer service proves collective culpability; his later insistence on firepower and surveillance, however, preserves a charged atmosphere of possible escalation. The character is defined less by a personal backstory than by this tension between investigative clearance and anticipatory force, and by the confidence with which he occupies the latter role.