(Redirected from French Gendarmerie)
:''See
gendarmerie for similar forces in other countries.''
In
France, the 'Gendarmerie Nationale' (''National Gendarmerie'') is the national
gendarmerie and
military police force. It has a strength of 104,275 personnel.
Missions
General Oberto inspecting troops in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina; a ''gendarme'' on Military police duty can be seen in the background.
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.
Chain of Command
French Gendarmes, in the traditional
kepi, guarding the Paris Hall of Justice
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 missions within France, and criminal investigations are run under the supervision of prosecutors or
investigating magistrates (judges). Its members operate in uniform and exceptionally in plainclothes.
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.
Battle Honors
5 battles are registered on the flag
★ Battle of Hondschoote 1793 - 400 gendarmes of the 32d division are engaged in the left wing of the army. They seize enemy artillery and lose 117 men.
★ Villodrigo 1812 - The 1st légion of Gendarmerie with horse, belonging to the Brigade of Cavalry of the Army of North, runs up against the English cavalry on October 23. Charging with the sabre, it pierced the enemy lines, killing 250 and taking 85 prisoners. Colonel Béteille, commanding the brigade, receives 12 sabre cuts and survived his wounds.
★ Taguin 1843 - 30 Gendarmes on horses are mobilized to take part in the tracking of the tribe of the emir
Abd-El-Kader and take part in his capture. On the 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°.
★ Sébastopol 1855 - 2 battalions of the Regiment of Gendarmerie of Foot of the Imperial Guard take part in the taking of the city. The 1st bataillon seized a strategic position said “white work” to the cost of casualties, and contributed its share to the final victory. 153 Gendarmes were killed.
★ Indo-China 1945/1954 - 3 Legions of
Republican Guard of Foot are raised at the end of 1946. Charged with forming a Civil Guard of Cochinchine, to assume missions of safety, to fill of the provostal missions, to supervise the borders, they posted heavy losses: 654 killed or missing and 1500 wounded. Celà is worth with the flag of the Gendarmerie a Military Cross TOE with two palms.
Service streamers from 1984 with today.
★
Lebanon
★
Algeria
★
Kosovo
★
Rwanda
★
Ivory Coast
★
Bosnia-Herzégovina,
★
Haiti,
★
Central Africa,
★
Republic of Macedonia…
Legal authority
In 2002, in accordance with commitments entered into by Jacques Chirac at the time of her countryside for the presidential election of 2002, the forces of gendarmerie were attached to the ministry for the interior for their missions of interior safety. The gendarmes continued however to raise of the military statute. The brigades were reorganized in communities of brigades to the broader sphere of activity. The Law of orientation and programming for interior safety also took part in a new distribution of the forces of gendarmerie and police force in France.
Organization
The Gendarmerie Nationale is divided into the ''gendarmerie départementale'' and the ''gendarmerie mobile''.
Manpower
Manpower in 2005 was 103,866 personnel. 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 resulting from voluntarary (AGIV) and voluntary assistant gendarmes (GAV);
★ 2,011 civilian personnel are divided into civil servants, State workers and contracted;
★ 40,000 personnel of reserve, used according to the needs for the service. This reserve did not reach the authorized limits of its manpower yet. Only 25,000 men and women signed up for reserve engagements (E.S.R.).
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. Indeed, since October 1, 1933, and except for a period from August 1943 to July 1947, the director general was a
civilian, usually a judge, in accordance with the decree n° 73-259 of March 9, 1973.
General of the Army Guy Parayre was born on June 29, 1947, in Saint-Ambroix (Gard). He is married and the father of two children.
Directorate-General
Its headquarters, called the Directorate-General of the National Gendarmerie, is 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 it 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).
The Departemental Gendarmerie
The '
Departmental Gendarmerie', or ''Gendarmerie Départementale'', also named «La Blanche»
[1] ''(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
(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 specialized 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, specialized 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.
The Mobile Gendarmerie
Riot control gear: body armour, shield, tear gas mask, apparatus for throwing tear gas canisters
Using tear gas
A training assault of GIGN on a
TGV train.
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.
Specialized 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 around Paris.
''See Main article:
French Republican Guard''
The 'Garde Républicaine', is a ceremonial unit based in
Paris, whose main mission is to guard official buildings and perform honorary services. They also protect the French president.
Special divisions
Maritime Gendarmerie
''Main article:
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.
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.
Air Gendarmerie
Gendarmerie helicopter
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.
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).
Trivia
★ Career gendarmes are either commissioned or
non-commissioned officers. The lower ranks consist of auxiliary gendarmes on limited-time/term contracts.
★ The gendarmerie is sometimes unofficially referred to as the ''maréchaussée'' (an old name for the service), and the gendarmes as ''pandores''.
★ The officer school of the Gendarmerie Nationale is located in
Melun.
★ The symbol of the gendarmerie is a
grenade, it's also worn by the Italian
Carabinieri and the
Grenadier Guards in England.
★ In 2005, the Gendarmerie switched its 70,000 personal computers from
Microsoft Office (or
Microsoft Word) to the
OpenOffice.org suite. In 2006, they are switching
web browsers from
Internet Explorer to
Mozilla Firefox and email clients to
Mozilla Thunderbird. According to Gen. Brachet, Chief of Communications and Computing Systems, the goal is to move all applications to fully standardised protocols and formats, so that they are platform-neutral.
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.
External links
★
Gendarmerie Nationale official site
★
The French Gendarmerie Directory
See also
★
Law enforcement in France
★
Police
★
Gendarmerie
★
Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez - cult comedy series
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