France | OSCE POLIS (2024)

1. General information
The National Police is a civilian force under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior and primarily responsible for urban areas.

2. Functions and missions
The role of the National Police is generally to ensure that the laws are observed and enforced. Efforts are also directed at the prevention of delinquency. In that context, the National Police:

• conducts security operations (e.g. patrols, traffic control, identity checks); and

• under the supervision of the judiciary, conducts criminal enquiries, serves search warrants, etc., as well as maintaining specific “judiciary police” services for criminal enquiries.

3. Structure and organization
One of France’s two police presences is the National Police, a civil law enforcement agency with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns with populations exceeding 16,000 inhabitants. It is under the authority of the Minister of the Interior (see organization chart in the Links section below). At the top of the police hierarchy is the General Directorate of the National Police, which oversees the following divisions:

• General Inspectorate of the National Police

• Central Directorate of Judiciary Police

  See Also

  "danke , gut" in English | German to English Translator - PROMT.One

• Directorate of Territory Surveillance

• Central Directorate of Public Security

• Central Directorate for General Information

• Central Directorate of Border Police

• Central Service of the Republic's Security Forces

• Technical International Police Co-operation Service

• Protection of High-Profile Personalities Department

4. Staff data
The National Police comprises about 150,000 staff, divided into two categories: police officers and administrative employees.

5.Education / Training
Police personnel are recruited on the basis of competitive examination. Training is given in specialized schools. The officer’s rank often depends upon his/her educational level, whether secondary or post-secondary. Once selected, police recruits attend the Saint-Cyr School at Mont d'Or for ten months, while inspectors attend the Canet-Cluse School for six months and peace agents attend the Superior School for six months.

6. Oversight
France has mechanisms of internal and external evaluation that ensure proper police conduct. Ethical police conduct is further enforced by the Code of National Policeand related investigatory bodies.

1. General information
The French Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale or GN) is a police force under the administrative control of the Ministry of Interior.

• The Departmental Gendarmerie carries out judicial and ordinary police functions and is divided into territorial stations (3,600) with specific tasks as appropriate (e.g. traffic patrols, mountain units)
• The Mobile Gendarmerie does not undertake judicial work but may move to reinforce other police or to undertake special duties. Their principal duty is to maintain public order.

4. Staff data
Career gendarmes serve as either commissioned or non-commissioned officers. The lower ranks consist of auxiliary gendarmes on limited-time contracts. As of March 2005, the total staff comprised 104,275 personnel.

5. Education / Training
The Academy of National Gendarmerie Officers (Ecole des Officiers de la Gendarmerie Nationale or EOGN) is the officer’s training centre located in Melun which providesOfficer’s basic training as well as retraining. After having been chosen through selective examination based on university standards, students must complete a two-year course (including Law, International Relations, Crime, Public Order, Human Resources Management, Relations with Medias, Human Rights, Foreign Languages, Crisis Management) in order to become a Gendarme Officer.

Non-commissioned officers are trained or retrained in one of the 6 academies that are to be found in the whole territory. The Gendarmerie promotion system offers large avenues for non-commissioned officers to become officers: At least 50% of the officers are former non-commissioned officers.

The Municipal Police is responsible for daily urban policing and covers all criminal and public order matters within its urban boundaries.

Approximately half of all municipal police officers are sworn agents and carry guns, while most of the other half are municipal agents. The total estimated number ranges between 10,000 and 30,000 officers with consensus around the figure of 20,000 officers.

1.General information
The French legal system abides by the principle of unity of the civil and criminal justice systems. The French Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP)outlines police public order powers, as well as the powers of investigation. Criminal courts of first instance handle violations of the law listed in the Penal Code and are divided into three categories, depending on the nature and severity of the crime: first instance tribunals (petty offences and civil disputes), criminal tribunals (offenceswith possible punishment ofup to 5 years of imprisonment and heavy civil disputes) and Assize courts.

2. Prosecution
The Public Prosecutor’s Officeinitiates criminal proceedings andthen transfers cases to an examining magistrate. However, they supervise and control all police and gendarmerie investigations before such transfers. Once a case has been transferred and a judicial investigation begun, the police and gendarmerie officers actunder the direct authority and supervision of the examining magistrate.