France: police & security agencies
01 January 1991
France: police & security agencies
bacdoc July=1995
The information in this country file was first published in the
handbook "Statewatching the new Europe" (November 1993). It was
compiled by Peter Klerks and extracted from a longer report which
is available from: The Domestic Security Research Foundation, PO
Box 11178, 1001 GD, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
France
547,030 km², 56,595,587 inhabitants
Long-form name: French Republic
Type: republic
Capital: Paris
Administrative divisions: metropolitan France--22 regions
(regions, singular--region). The 22 regions are subdivided into
96 departments. France also has overseas departments (French
Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion), territorial
collectivities and dependent areas.
Constitution: 28 September 1958, amended concerning election of
president in 1962.
Legal system: civil law system with indigenous concepts; review
of administrative but not legislative acts.
Executive branch: president, prime minister, Council of Ministers
(cabinet)
Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament (Parlement) consists of
an upper house or Senate (Senat) and a lower house or National
Assembly (Assemblée Nationale).
Judicial branch: Court of Cassation (Cour de Cassation)
I. POLICE STRUCTURES & forces
Total no. of police officers (1991 estimate): 277,920. No. of
police officers per 100,000 inhabitants: 394 (EC av. 338). The
Police Nationale was 125,320 strong (114,900 executive, 10,420
administrative) in January 1989. The Gendarmerie Nationale
numbered 91,800 personnel in 1991. The Police Judiciaire was
estimated at 5,800 in 1989. Women in the police: in the Police
Nationale in 1991 women were 10% of the total strength; the
Gendarmerie, 1.5%. France also has a number of semi-police
forces, in particular the Police Municipale (about 25,000) and
the Gardes Champêtres (nearly 30,000). Including these the number
of police officers per 100,000 inhabitants is 491.
France's 96 departements are further subdivided into 324
arrondissements (districts), which are made up of communes. A
department is managed by a Commissaire de la République (formerly
called the Préfet).
Gendarmerie Nationale
This strictly military organisation, which is part of the
Ministry of Defence, performs police duties in all towns with
fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. It is responsible for policing
over 90% of the land area of France, and absorbs about 40% of the
entire policing budget (i.e. of the Ministries of the Interior
and Defence combined). It consists of two sections. The
Gendarmerie Départementale forms a network of about 3,500
brigades with units of between five and 55 officers covering the
whole of provincial France as well as its overseas territories.
The officers, living in barracks with their families, are
responsible for 24-hour police services.
The Gendarmerie Mobile (GM) is a specially trained public
order force which, together with the Compagnies Républicaines de
Sécurité (CRS, see below) forms a permanent riot control
apparatus, a standing `third force'. Some 18,000 GM are
distributed over France in 24 groupements, made up of units of
about 130 squadrons of 134 officers. The GM is solely intended
to guard vital civilian installations and defend the Republic in
times of war or to intervene in serious public order situations.
Logistically it is almost entirely self-sufficient and has
extensive weaponry including machine guns, armoured combat
vehicles, helicopters, light tanks and parachute forces.
Police Nationale
CRS riot squads, the prime public order forces, are also
distributed all over France and stationed around urban and
industrial areas in 10 territorial group commands (baraques).
Apart from maintaining public order, they are mostly deployed in
highway patrols and on assistance duties in the mountains and on
the beaches. In total, the CRS number about 16,000 men comprising
61 companies. Although organise