National Gendarmerie
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| Gendarmerie Nationale | |
| Coverage | |
|---|---|
 Gendarmerie Nationale area |
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| Area | France (rural) |
| Size | 674,843 km² |
| Population | Approx 66 million |
| Operations | |
| Formed | 1793 |
| HQ | Paris |
| Budget | {{{budget}}} |
| Officers | {{{officers}}} |
| Regions | 3 |
| Stations | |
| Directeur Général | Général d'Armée Guy Parayre |
| Website | Gendarmerie Nationale |
- See gendarmerie for similar forces in other countries.
In France, the National Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie Nationale) is the national gendarmerie and military police force. It has a strength of 104,275 personnel. Its budget in 2008 is around 7,7 billion euros.[1] The gendarmerie is sometimes unofficially referred to as the maréchaussée (an old name for the service), and the gendarmes as pandores. The symbol of the gendarmerie is a grenade (also worn by the Italian Carabinieri and the Grenadier Guards in Britain.)
Contents |
[edit] Missions
Its missions include:
- The policing of the countryside, rivers and coastal areas, and small towns with populations under 10,000 (outside of the jurisdiction of the French National Police). About half the French population is under the direct jurisdiction of the Gendarmerie.
- Criminal investigations under judiciary supervision.
- Crowd control and other security activities.
- The security of airports and military installations, as well as all investigations relating to the military, including in foreign interventions.
- Participations in ceremonies involving foreign heads of states or heads of governments.
- Provision of Military police services to the Military of France.
[edit] Chain of command
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While administratively a part of the French armed forces, thus under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence, it is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior for its operations within France, and criminal investigations are run under the supervision of prosecutors or investigating magistrates (judges). Its members operate in uniform, and occasionally in plainclothes.
[edit] History
A military corps having such duties was first created in 1337 and was placed under the command of the Constable of France, and therefore named the connétablie. In 1626 after the aboliton of the title of connétable, it was put under the command of the Maréchal of France, and renamed Maréchaussée. Its main mission was protecting the roads from highwaymen.
The gens d'armes were originally heavy cavalry in the king's household, the equivalent of the "Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms". In 1720 the maréchaussée was subordinated to the gendarmerie; after the French Revolution the maréchaussée was abolished and the gendarmerie took over its duties in 1791.
The origins of the modern gendarmerie lie with the maréchaussée of 18th century France. This was a mounted police force organised and equipped along military lines. While its existence ensured the relative safety of French rural districts and roads the maréchaussée was regarded in contemporary England (which had no effective police force of any nature) as a symbol of foreign tyranny. In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the maréchaussée numbered 3,660 men divided into small detachments or brigades. By law dated 16 February 1791 this force was renamed gendarmerie nationale. Its personnel and role remained unchanged. Under Napoleon the numbers and responsibilities of the gendarmerie were significantly expanded.
[edit] Battle honours
5 battles are registered on the flag
- Battle of Hondschoote (1793) - 400 gendarmes of the 32rd Division are engaged in the left wing of the army. They seize enemy artillery and lose 117 men.
- Villodrigo (1812) - The 1st legion of Gendarmerie on horseback, belonging to the Brigade of Cavalry of the Army of North, clash with the English cavalry on October 23. Charging with sabres, they pierce the enemy lines, killing 250 and taking 85 prisoners. Colonel Béteille, commanding the brigade, receives 12 sabre cuts but survives.
- Taguin (1843) - 30 Gendarmes on horseback are mobilised to take part in the tracking of the tribe of the emir Abd-El-Kader and take part in his capture. On a painting by Vernet which immortalise the scene (Museum of Versailles), the Gendarmes appear in the sides of the Duke of Aumale, wire of King Louis-Philippe I°.
- Sebastopol (1855) - 2 infantry battalions of the Regiment of Gendarmerie of the Imperial Guard take part in the taking of the city. The 1st battalion seizes a strategic position and contributes towards the final victory. 153 Gendarmes are killed.
- Indo-China (1945/1954) - 3 Legions of infantrymen from the Republican Guard are formed at the end of 1946. Charged with formation of the Cochinchina Civil Guard, taking up of security roles and securing the borders, they suffered heavy losses: 654 killed or missing and 1500 wounded.
[edit] Foreign Service
They have also served in;
- Lebanon
- Algeria
- Kosovo
- Rwanda
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Bosnia-Herzegovina,
- Haiti,
- Central Africa,
- Republic of Macedonia…
[edit] Legal authority
In 2002, in accordance with commitments made by Jacques Chirac at the time of his campaign for the 2002 presidential election, the Gendarmerie were attached to the Ministry of the Interior for their duties within France. The gendarmes however retained their military status. The brigades were reorganised and were given a broader sphere of activity. New legislations resulted in a new distribution of Gendarmerie and the police force in France.
[edit] Organization
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The Gendarmerie Nationale is divided into the gendarmerie départementale and the gendarmerie mobile.
[edit] Manpower
The National Gendarmerie consisted of 103,866 personnel in 2005. Career gendarmes are either commissioned or non-commissioned officers. The lower ranks consist of auxiliary gendarmes on limited-time/term contracts. The military personnel of the National Gendarmerie is divided into:
- 4,169 officers and 75,842 warrant officers of gendarmerie;
- 154 officers and 3,729 warrant officers of the technical and administrative body;
- 15,757 section volunteers, from voluntary gengarmes (AGIV) and voluntary assistant gendarmes (GAV);
- 2,011 civilian personnel are divided into civil servants, state workers and contracted workers;
- 40,000 reserve personnel. This reserve force had not yet reached the authorised size limit. Only 25,000 men and women were signed up for reserve engagements (E.S.R.).
[edit] The Director-general
Général d'Armée Guy Parayre was appointed Director-general of the Gendarmerie on November 3, 2004, by the Council of Ministers. He officially took command on December 6, 2004, and succeeded Pierre Mutz . This nomination gave the Gendarmerie a director-general who rose through the ranks. Like the other staffs, the Gendarmerie is now directed at the highest level by a gendarme. Since October 1, 1933, and except for a period from August 1943 to July 1947, the director general had been a civilian, usually a judge, in accordance with the decree n° 73-259 of March 9, 1973.
Guy Parayre was born on June 29, 1947, in Saint-Ambroix (Gard).
[edit] Directorate-General
The headquarters of the force, called the Directorate-General of the National Gendarmerie, had been located since 1969 at rue St Didier in the XVI° district of the Paris Metropolis. As it grew, expansion was necessary, and now includes eleven other sites distributed throughout the capital and the outskirts of the city.
The Directorate-General of the national gendarmerie includes: - the general staff, divided into offices and services, - one inspectorate of gendarmerie (IGN), - the inspector-general - three services including/understanding each subdirectorate,
- The Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (I.G.N) - responsible for studies, information and control. In particular for:
- the judicial enquiries into gendarme misconduct. - the control and the administrative council of the formations of the gendarmerie as well as the economic analysis of the management led by these same formations. - measurements of prevention and control relating to hygiene, the safety and the working conditions.
- Human Resources Service (S.R.H.) - The general, chief of the service of human resources directs the management of the whole of the personnel of the gendarmerie, as well as the policy of recruitment and training of this personnel.
- Plans and Means Service (S.P.M.) - The controller general, chief of the service of the plans and means, translated into plans and programs budgetary objectives of the gendarmerie.
- Operations and Employment Service (S.O.E.) - The general, chief of the service of the operations and employment, has authority on:
- the subdirectorate of the organization and the evaluation, - the subdirectorate of the international co-operation, - the subdirectorate of defense and the law and order, - the subdirectorate of public safety and the road safety, - the subdirectorate of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The Directorate-General takes part in the correct operation of the organization. It works: - for the units of the ground and with their profit (at the regional level, the areas and the legions are the essential interfaces so that the decisions taken in Paris correspond well to the needs felt on the ground) ; - as a body of decision-making aid political for all that concerns the gendarmerie in police headquarters (budget, employment…).
It employs 2991 active soldiers, 423 civilian volunteers and 363 other personnel (2004 Figures).
[edit] The Departmental Gendarmerie
The Departmental Gendarmerie, or Gendarmerie Départementale, also named «La Blanche»[2] (The White), conducts local policing functions throughout the French territory. Its territorial divisions are based on the administrative divisions of France, particularly the departments from which the Departmental Gendarmerie derives its name.
It is divided into regions (headed by a general, one for each defense zone), themselves divided into legions [2] (headed by a colonel, one for each of the 26 administrative region), themselves divided into groupements (one for each of the 100 département, thus the name), themselves divided into compagnies (one for each of the 342 arrondissements).
It maintains gendarmerie stations throughout the rural parts of the territory. In addition, it has specialised units:
- Research units, who conduct criminal investigations when their difficulty exceeds the abilities of the territorial units;
- Surveillance and intervention units, reinforce gendarmerie forces in high crime areas;
- Units for prevention of juvenile delinquency;
- Highway patrols
- Mountain units, specialised in search and rescue operations, surveillance and inquiries in mountainous areas.
In addition, the Gendarmerie has an institute (Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale) specializing in the investigation of crimes by scientific and technological means.
Note that the research units may be called into action by the judiciary even within cities. As an example, the Paris research section of the Gendarmerie was in charge of the investigations into the vote-rigging allegations in the 5th district of Paris (see corruption scandals in the Paris region).
Gendarmes normally operate in uniform. They may operate in plainclothes only for specific missions and with their supervisors' authorisation.
 Renault Trafic Gendarmerie van |
 Gendarmes without kepis in an older uniform |
 Gendarmes in an relaxed uniform, with soft hats |
[edit] The Mobile Gendarmerie
The Mobile Gendarmerie, or Gendarmerie Mobile, also named « La Jaune » (The Yellow), is divided into legions, similarly to the Departmental Gendarmerie.
Its main responsibilities are
- crowd and riot control
- security of public buildings
- all policing tasks that require large amounts of personnel (Vigipirate counter-terrorism patrols, searches in the countryside...).
Such units may intervene abroad in varied cases such as a hostage crisis or the support of peacekeeping operations.
The tasks of the gendarmes mobiles tasks are similar to those of the police units known as Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), for which they are often mistaken. Easy ways to distinguish them include:
- the uniform of the CRS is blue, the gendarmes mobiles are clad in black;
- the CRS wear a big red CRS patch; the gendarmes have stylised grenades.
[edit] Specialised units
It has the following specialised units:
- the security and intervention group of the Gendarmerie Nationale (GSIGN), consisting of:
- the intervention group of the Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN), an elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit,
- the parachutist squadron of the Gendarmerie Nationale (EPIGN),
- a detachment to the security group of the President of the French Republic, whose responsibility is to ensure the safety of the President and of his family and guests.
- Armoured units:
- 17 mobile squadrons equipped with tactical trucks and VAB armored personnel carriers, throughout the French territory;
- the armored group at Versailles-Satory, consisting of three squadrons of VAB wheeled armoured personnel carriers and one squadron of ERC 90 Sagaie, heavy armoured cars with 90 mm cannons.
- Republican Guard - a ceremonial unit based in Paris, whose main mission is to guard official buildings and perform honorary services. They also protect the French president.
See Main article: French Republican Guard
[edit] Special divisions
[edit] Maritime Gendarmerie
Placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the Navy, its missions include:
- police and security in the naval bases;
- maritime surveillance;
- police at sea;
- assistance and rescue at sea.
[edit] Air Transport Gendarmerie
The Air Transport Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie des Transports Aériens) is placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the direction of civilian aviation of the transportation ministry, its missions include:
- police and security in civilian airfields and airports;
- filtering access to aircraft, counter-terrorism and counter-narcotic activities, freight surveillance;
- surveillance of technical installations of the airports (control tower...);
- traffic control on the roads within the airports;
- protection of important visitors stopping for a layover;
- judiciary inquiries pertaining to accidents of civilian aircraft.
[edit] Air Gendarmerie
The Air Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie de l'Air) is placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the Air Force, it fulfills police and security missions in the air bases, and goes on the site of accident of military aircraft.
[edit] Ordnance Gendarmerie
The Ordnance Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie de l'Armement) fulfills police and security missions in the establishments of the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (France's defence procurement agency).
[edit] Some notes
- ^ [1]
- ^ After the colour of the silver stripes that the gendarmes wear on their kepis, as opposed to the golden striped of the Mobile Gendarmerie.
[edit] See also
- Law enforcement in France
- Police
- Gendarmerie
- Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez - cult comedy series
