Direction Centrale de la Sécurité Publique
Encyclopedia
French National Police
The National Police , formerly the Sûreté Nationale, is one of two national police forces and the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns. The other main agency is the military Gendarmerie, with primary jurisdiction in smaller towns and rural...
(Police Nationale) responsible for keeping the peace and maintaining public order in the cities and large towns of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
The DCSP consists of over 78,000 mainly uniformed police personnel known as Gardiens de la Paix
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
("Guardians of the Peace") deployed in 102 Départemental directorates with 462 Urban Offices. They provide general police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
services, including crime prevention, patrol, and response to calls for assistance. The DGSP maintains a small plainclothes corps who investigates local crimes; these are organised into Criminal Brigades.
The DCSP also deploys 9 Groupes d'Intervention de la Police Nationale (GIPN), intervention units similar to the Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion
Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion
Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion or RAID is, like the GIPN, a Special Operations tactical unit of the National Police with more manpower and equipment...
(RAID) team (which is directly under orders of the Direction Générale de la Police Nationale).
There are also dog
Police dog
A police dog, often referred to as a "K-9 dog" in some areas , is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work...
units, boat units, and an air wing.