Prefecture of Police
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The Préfet de Police is an official of the Government of France who supervises police and emergency services to Paris and the surrounding three departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne, and has other security duties in the wider Île-de-France région.
The actual city of Paris is both a commune and a département. As it is the capital of France, with government assemblies and offices and foreign embassies, it poses special issues of security and public order. Consequently, the national government has been responsible for providing law enforcement and emergency services since the creation of the Prefecture of Police by Napoléon I on February 17, 1800. This means that Paris does not have its own police municipale and that the Police Nationale provides these services directly as a subdivision of France's Ministry of the Interior.
Nomination and missions
Headed by a prefect titled The "Prefect of Police", who (as are all prefects) is named by the President in the Council of Ministers, and operates under the Minister of the Interior, commands the Prefecture which is responsible for the following:
- security of Paris, if necessary in collaboration with the military;
- issuing identification cards, drivers licenses, passports, residential and work permits for foreigners;
- motor vehicle registration and traffic control;
- registration of associations, and their creation, status modification and dissolution;
- protection of the environment, general salubrity;
- determining the dates of discount sales in large stores which can be held only twice a year;
- issuing permits to bakeries/boulangeries for their summer vacation to assure that all the bakeries in agiven neighborhood are not closed at the same time;
- management the police and firefighters.
The current Prefect of Police is Pierre Mutz.
Until 1977, Paris had indeed no mayor and was mostly ruled by the préfet de police (a situation inherited from the Paris Commune, 1871). However, the powers of the mayor of Paris were increased at the expense of those of the Préfet de Police in 2002, notably for traffic and parking decisions (the préfet retains the responsibility on main thoroughfares such as the Champs-Élysées avenue, and on any street during the organization of demonstrations).
Since the Prefect of Police is not directly responsible to local government officials, priorities of the police in Paris do not necessarily match those of the local populace. For example, the police in Paris show little or no interest in enforcing laws dealing with owners removing dog excrement from sidewalks as can be readily seen by visitors to Paris. Suburban areas with their own police are more effective in enforcing this law.
There is also a prefect of Paris, prefect for the Île-de-France region, whose services handle some tasks not devoted to the Police Prefect, such as certain classes of building permits.
Address
- place Louis Lepine, 1 rue de Lutece, 75004 Paris (metro Cite)
- Tel: 01 54 73 53 73, 01 53 71 53 71, 01 40 79 79 79.
- Emergency telephone number: 1-1-2
- *Non-emergency Ambulance Service(at least in Paris)/SAMU/SMUR(Hospital Based) 1-5
- *Police 1-7
- *Fire Brigade (Operates emergency ambulances as EMS) 1-8
Organization
The PP is headed by a politically appointed prefect who is assisted by the prevote, who is the senor police officer of the force. The Prefecture of Police is divided into three sub-prefectures headed by prefects due to their importance.Because the Police Prefecture provides some services that are normally provided by city governments, its funding partially comes from the City of Paris and other city governments within its jurisdiction.
In addition to forces from the National Police, the Police Prefecture has traffic wardens or crossing guards who enforce parking rules; it has recently added some wardens that direct traffic at crossroads and other similar duties, known as circulation, with specific uniforms.
Prefect and Director of the Cabinet
Consists of the Cabinet (staff) itself- Gendarmerie Nationale Liaison Office
- Public Security-uniformed police officers
- *Lost and Found Property
- *Central Accident Service
- Public Order and Traffic Control - uniformed police who protect public buildings, provide crowd and traffic control services.
- Judicial Police-detectives and investigators
- General Information-records
- Inspectorate - internal affairs
- Paris Fire Brigade - The military [Brigade de Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris] which provides all fire and emergency ambulance services. Other emergency medical services are provided by SAMU/SMUR.
- Classified Facility Inspectorate
- Psychiatric Infirmary
- Toxicology Laboratory
- Central Laboratory-explosives, pollution, chemical analysis,electrical and fire safety, etc.
Prefect and Secretary General for the Administration of the Police
with four Administrative Directorates:- General Police-Administrative police duties
- *Medico-Legal Institute
- Traffic, Transport and Trade
- Population Protection - Public health matters.
- *Veterinary Service
- Human Resources - Personnel, budget, equipment and police labor disputes.
Prefect and Secretary General for the Zone of Defence
with two agencies:- Defence Zone staff
- Interdepartmental Service for Civil Defence
Resources
- Budget
- *One billion Euros by National government
- *488 million Euros by Paris and surrounding departments of the little crown.
- Personnel
- *19,647 State Employees-includes 17,979 Police officers, 748 National Police Administration employees, technicians and scientific staff, plus 20 others.
- *5765 Municipal Employees
- *6840 Military Personnel of the Paris Fire Brigade
- 494 Facilities, stations and offices
- 6120 Vehicles-includes police cars, firetrucks, motorcycles, boats and helicopters.
Activities
- 350000 incidents of crime reports
- two million administrative documents issues
- 200000 drivers licenses issued
See also
External links
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