Police log entry or complaint: which to choose, when and how

Published on 20/07/2026

Faced with facts one is subjected to — a neighbour making threats, an ex who does not present the child, harassing messages, violence —, the same question keeps coming back: should you file a police log entry (main courante) or lodge a complaint (plainte)? Both are done at the police station or the gendarmerie, but they have neither the same nature nor the same effects, and the subject goes far beyond family conflict: it concerns any dispute between private individuals, neighbourhood disturbances, harassment or violence. Here, in a documentary way and on the basis of official sources, is what each of them covers, when one is preferable to the other, and how to proceed.

Two steps not to be confused

The confusion is frequent, because both are declared at the same counter. Yet everything sets them apart: the police log entry records facts, the complaint brings them before the justice system.

	Police log entry	Complaint
Nature	A simple declaration recorded in a police or gendarmerie register	Reporting an offence (contravention, délit, crime) to the justice system
Triggers prosecution?	No — no investigation, the perpetrator is neither summoned nor informed	Yes, it may: the prosecutor assesses what action to take
Main effect	Giving the facts a certain date, keeping a trace of them	Opening an investigation, which may lead to prosecution and to a judgment
Where / how	In person only, at the police station or the gendarmerie	In person, online (certain offences) or by letter to the prosecutor
Record kept	Dated entry in the register; receipt issued	Official report (procès-verbal) + receipt issued immediately
Limitation period	Not applicable (a declaration, not a prosecution)	1 year (contravention), 6 years (délit), 20 years (crime)

The police log entry: dating the facts without prosecuting them

The police log entry (also called a "déclaration d'usager", a user declaration) is a declaration by which you report facts, which are then recorded in a register of the police or the gendarmerie. Its purpose is not to initiate prosecution, but to report the nature and the date of what you have suffered or observed. The official page Making a police log entry (service-public.gouv.fr, F11182) sums it up thus: a police log entry does not entail the opening of a judicial investigation.

⚠️ Direct consequence: the person named in the police log entry is not informed and, save in exceptional cases, will be neither summoned nor troubled. A police log entry, on its own, therefore does not "do" anything to the perpetrator of the facts — it simply places on record, on a certain date, what you declare.

Its usefulness lies elsewhere: it dates the facts and keeps an official trace of them. Filing one or more police log entries about repeated facts (noise, threats, harassment, leaving the family home, failure to return a child…) constitutes a beginning of proof that may later be produced in support of a complaint or of proceedings. In family law, it often serves to objectivise a climate over time — a sequence of dated incidents carries more weight than a memory. A police log entry is filed in person; it cannot be made online.

The complaint: bringing the facts to the prosecutor's knowledge

To lodge a complaint is to report an offence to the justice system. The complaint reaches the public prosecutor (procureur de la République), who decides what follows. Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lays down this central role:

"The public prosecutor receives complaints and denunciations and assesses what action to take on them in accordance with the provisions of Article 40-1."

This is what is called the discretion to prosecute (opportunité des poursuites): in the light of the complaint and of the investigation, Article 40-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that the prosecutor may, at their choice, initiate prosecution, implement an alternative procedure (a formal reminder of the law, criminal mediation…) or discontinue the case. Unlike the police log entry, a complaint is therefore capable of setting the public prosecution in motion.

⚠️ Your complaint cannot be refused. Article 15-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is unambiguous:

"Judicial police officers and agents are required to receive complaints lodged by victims of offences against the criminal law, including where those complaints are lodged with a judicial police service or unit that lacks territorial jurisdiction."

An officer therefore cannot "send you back" to a mere police log entry if you intend to lodge a complaint: the complaint is recorded, and a receipt is issued to you.

If the prosecutor discontinues the case, the victim still has one lever: the complaint with an application to join the proceedings as a civil party (plainte avec constitution de partie civile) before the investigating judge, which triggers the opening of a judicial investigation. For délits, Article 85 of the Code of Criminal Procedure makes it conditional on a prior discontinuance or on the expiry of a three-month period since the complaint was lodged.

When to choose one or the other?

There is no rigid rule, but a simple logic.

A police log entry is enough — or is the natural first reflex — when what you want above all is to keep a dated trace without setting a procedure in motion: marking the event, documenting an isolated incident, building up over time a body of material (repeated neighbourhood tensions, for example, or objectivising a climate in a parental conflict). It is useful where no clear offence is yet made out, or where you do not wish, at this stage, for the other party to be prosecuted.

A complaint is called for as soon as an offence must be prosecuted: violence, threats, harassment, failure to return a child despite a court decision (see our guide), theft, fraud, criminal damage… If you expect the perpetrator to answer for their acts or the facts to stop, only a complaint opens that route.

⚠️ A police log entry does not have the same value as a complaint: it obliges no one to investigate. But the two are not mutually exclusive. A police log entry filed today never prevents you from lodging a complaint afterwards for the same facts, as long as the offence is not time-barred — and it then strengthens the file by proving how far back the facts go and how often they have recurred.

How to go about it, in practice

For a police log entry: go in person to the police station or the gendarmerie. You set out the facts, they are recorded, and a receipt is issued to you. It is free and requires no formalities.

For a complaint, three routes (official page Lodging a complaint, F1435):

In person, at the police station or the gendarmerie of your choice (regardless of where the offence took place) — the complaint must be recorded there (Article 15-3 above), with a receipt issued;
Online, for certain offences only (theft, fraud, criminal damage with no known perpetrator…), through the Ministry of the Interior's online complaint service;
By letter to the public prosecutor of the judicial court of the place of the offence or of the perpetrator's home — an official template letter is available.

In every case, describe the facts with precision (dates, places, persons, loss suffered) and attach your material (medical certificates, messages, photographs, witness statements).

What happens afterwards

A police log entry stays at the police station or the gendarmerie: it is archived in the register, with no automatic follow-up. You will be able to ask for a copy of it or to refer to it later.

A complaint, for its part, in principle opens an investigation. At its close, the prosecutor decides (prosecution, an alternative measure, or discontinuance). A discontinuance is not the end of everything: you can challenge it before the principal public prosecutor, or, as we have seen, refer the matter to the investigating judge by a complaint with an application to join the proceedings as a civil party.

Whatever your choice — police log entry, complaint, or both over time — keeping your own dated log of the facts changes everything: each incident recorded on its date, with the numbers and dates of the police log entries and complaints already filed and the documents attached to them. It is this chronological thread, clear and sourced, that gives a file its strength — and it is precisely what Aridelle is designed to organise. See our guides Keeping a timeline of events and Building an evidence file for the family court judge.

For any individual situation, get support: a lawyer, a point-justice or Allô Service Public (3939) can guide you free of charge. If you believe you are the victim of an offence, France Victimes (116 006), the free national victim support number, will listen to you and direct you to an association near you. In cases of danger, dial 17.