NCJ Number
145001
Date Published
1993
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Reforms of the past 10 years are leading the French police toward more professionalism, modernization, unification, and better adaptation to the diversity of jurisdictions.
Abstract
French police are known for operating under an authoritarian model marked by centralization of authority under the state, the priority of maintaining public order, and willingness to act in the political domain. French police are made up of two distinct forces: the national civil police and the "national gendarmerie," which forms part of the military arm of the government, reporting to the defense minister. In general, the civil police has jurisdiction in urban areas and the gendarmerie in rural areas. The French police system is changing in every aspect (structure, function, priority, and relation to the central government). It is being modernized and professionalized much as the police of Anglo-Saxon countries have been since the end of the 1960's. At the same time, a series of efforts have taken place in France to improve public access to the police and improved relations and communication between citizens and police. The most distinctive change for French police has been the strengthening of ties between the police and diverse local communities. The author predicts that these changes will result in a reordering of police priorities to give less weight to maintaining public order and more to providing services to citizens. Thus French police are moving from an authority model to a community model while seeking an equilibrium between the effectiveness brought by the former and the legitimacy derived from the latter. Footnotes