Various different forms of police

[Rob G]

We've been living here a few months now, but still haven't fathomed this one...Can anyone tell us what are the respective respoonsibilities and areas of jurisdiction of the police nationale, the police nationale, and the gendarmes?

Thanks,

Rob

[Will]

This should answer your question - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_National_Police

The basic difference is that the police nationale is a civil police force, under the ministry of the interior, that operates in larger towns, while the gendarmerie is a branch of the military that operates in small towns and rural areas. I've never been able to fathom why two distinct forces should be needed, but then there are so many illogicalities and inefficiencies in French life

[Sunday Driver]

France has two national general-purpose law enforcement agencies:

- the Police Nationale:  a civilian force reporting to the Ministry of the Interior and primary responsible for larger urban areas.  The general reserve of the Police Nationale is the CRS (Compagnie Republicain de Securite).  Apart from riot control, the CRS are responsible for patrolling urban motorways and beach rescue operations.

- the Gendarmerie Nationale:  a military force responsible to the Ministry of  Defence but under the day to day operational control of the Ministry of the Interior.  Their primary responsibility is rural areas and small towns, as well as military installations.  They also provide highway patrol and mountain rescue services.  A subdivision is the Gendarmerie Mobile who provide riot control and anti terrorist activities. The Gendarmerie Mobile are also responsible for all policing tasks that require large amounts of personnel, eg missing child searches. 

There is also the French Customs Service (Douanes).

Those three agencies are the only ones legally capable of making full arrests or serving search warrants.

Local communes may also maintain a Police Municipale which have very limited law enforcement powers outside of traffic issues and local by laws. They are also available for certain environmental matters like enforcing building safety, evacuation of buildings, protection against accidents. Police Municipale are not allowed to carry fireams.

Working uniforms and equipment:

Police Nationale wear white shirts and navy trousers and have peaked caps.  Their vehicles are white with red/blue stripes.

Gendarmerie wear navy uniforms with pale blue shirts and baseball caps.  Their vehicles are blue with GENDARMERIE livery.

CRS wear navy blue uniforms with a big red CRS patch on their chest.  There vehicles are blue with large CRS shield badges.

Gendarmerie Mobile wear black combat uniforms and are equipped with armoured cars and tanks.

 

 

[Rob G]

Thank you, Will - a very informative reply and article. I also found this article, which contains a further useful description of the differences between the police nationale and the gendarmerie, as well as some comments (near the top, under "Other Agencies") about the "police municipale": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_France.

As for illogicalities and inefficiencies, as you said, there are so many that you come to accept it. If there's a simple and a complicated way of doing something, you can be sure which one the French will choose!

Rob

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="Rob G"]I also found this article....,

[/quote]

As summarised in my response - you posted at the same time[;-)]

[moonraker]

I beg to differ on the colour of the uniforms. Police Nationale shirts are light blue....I know because I wash and iron five of the wretched things every week!

[Lori]

Sunday Driver - Thanks again for a very informative post  ... to the others too.  Most helpful.

 

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Will "]

I've never been able to fathom why two distinct

forces should be needed, but then there are so many illogicalities and

inefficiencies in French life

[/quote]

....unlike the staggeringly efficient practice of having how many police forces in the UK? Why didn't the UK go along the route of a single national force? It never struck me as daft before, but thinking about it now...

[Clarkkent]

....unlike the staggeringly efficient practice of having how many police forces in the UK? Why didn't the UK go along the route of a single national force? It never struck me as daft before, but thinking about it now...

No, jond, there is a single police system in the UK, it is divided into local (mainly county) forces for operational reasons. In France, the interests of the various forces are often ill-defined and there are turf wars. The logic of county forces is that they can adapt themselves to meet local circumstances.

If you have been keeping an ear open, you would know that the Home Office wishes to amalgamate county forces into a small number of regional forces - for largely economic reasons. Many people are objecting to the proposed amalgamations because they believe that a larger force would be less responsive than a smaller force.

[Jo53]

Because policing in the UK is based on the idea of locally accountable forces that police their patch by consent. The police are not, in theory, meant to be an arm of the state or the military. They are now considering merging some of the smaller forces for efficiency, and a national force was set up recently to tackle serious and organised crime.

Edit: I posted at the same time as Clarkkent. I don't believe that the division is purely administrative. There is a principle of local accountability.