Paris Police Prefecture


The Paris Police Prefecture, officially the Police Prefecture, is the unit of the French Ministry of the Interior that provides police, emergency services, and various administrative services to the population of the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban Departments of France of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne. It is headed by the Paris Prefect of Police, officially called the Prefect of Police.
The Paris Police Prefecture supervises the Paris Police force, the Paris Fire Brigade, and various administrative departments in charge of issuing ID cards and driver licenses or monitoring alien residents. The Prefecture of Police also has security duties in the wider Île-de-France Regions of France as the Préfet de Police is also Préfet de Zone de Défense. Since 2017, it has acquired direct responsibility for the three main airports of the Paris area.
In addition to the Préfecture de Police, the French government created the Paris Municipal Police in 2021. In contrast with the Préfecture, the municipal police report to the city government, rather than to the national government. Municipal police officers began patrolling city streets on foot, bicycle, and by car starting on October 18, 2021. The goal of the municipal police is to "make neighbourhoods safer and more peaceful and ensure that public space is shared," for example by enforcing laws on parking, littering, breaking up quarrels, and assisting homeless or elderly residents.
The préfecture is a large building located in the Place Louis Lépine on the Île de la Cité. This building was built as a barracks for the Garde républicaine from 1863 to 1867 and was occupied by the Prefecture in 1871.
As it is the capital of France, with government assemblies and offices and foreign embassies, Paris 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 Lieutenancy General of Police by Louis XIV on March 15, 1667. Disbanded at the start of the French Revolution in 1789, it was replaced by the current Prefecture of Police created by Napoléon I on February 17, 1800. This means that, up until 2021, Paris did not have its own police municipale and that the Police Nationale provided all of these services directly as a subdivision of France's Ministry of the Interior.
Policemen assigned to "la PP" are part of the Police nationale but the Police Prefect reports directly to the Interior Minister, not to the director of the Police nationale. In Parisian slang, the police were sometimes known as "the archers", a very old slang term in reference to the archers of the long-defunct Royal Watch.
Paris also has the "Direction de la Prévention, de la Sécurité et de la Protection" which is composed of Agents with municipal police powers titled inspecteurs de sécurité. The DPSP reports to the Mayor of Paris.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police was initially the Seine Departments of France. Its jurisdiction also included the commune in France of Saint-Cloud, Sèvres, Meudon, and Enghien-les-Bains, which were located in the Seine-et-Oise Departments of France. These four communes were added in the 19th century to the jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police in order to ensure special protection of the imperial/royal residences located there.
The Seine département was disbanded in 1968 and the jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police is now the city of Paris and the three surrounding départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne. This territory made up of four départements is larger than the pre-1968 Seine département.
The Prefecture of Police also has limited jurisdiction over the whole Île-de-France Regions of France for the coordination of law enforcement, including combatting cybercrime. The Prefect of Police, acting as Prefect of the Defense Zone of Paris, is in charge of planning non-military defense measures to keep public order, guarantee the security of public services, and organize rescue operations for the whole Île-de-France région. As such, he coordinates the work of the departmental préfets of Île-de-France.

Nomination and missions

Headed by a prefect titled The "Prefect of Police", who 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, driver's 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 a given neighborhood are not closed at the same time;
  • management of police and firefighters.
The Prefect of Police can issue arrêtés defining rules pertaining to his field of competency. For instance, the rules of operation and security of Paris public parks are issued as joint arrêtés from the Mayor of Paris and the Prefect of Police.
Until 1977, Paris had indeed no elected mayor and the police was essentially in the hands of the préfet de police. 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.
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 Lépine, 1 rue de Lutèce, 75004 Paris
  • Tel: 01 54 73 53 73, 01 53 71 53 71, 01 40 79 79 79.
  • Emergency telephone number: 1-1-2
  • *Emergency medical service SAMU/SMUR 1-5
  • *Police 1-7
  • *Fire Brigade 1-8

    Organization

The PP is headed by a politically appointed prefect who is assisted by the prevote, who is the senior 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 itself, the Gendarmerie Nationale Liaison Office, and 6 Local Directorates:
  • 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 unit which provides all fire and emergency ambulance services
and other agencies:
  • 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 Petite Couronne
  • Personnel:
  • *45,860 employees, of which 30,200 police officers
  • *8,300 Military Personnel of the Paris Fire Brigade
  • 494 Facilities, stations, and offices
  • 6,120 vehicles – including police cars, fire trucks, motorcycles, boats, and helicopters

    Activities

  • 350,000 incidents of crime reports
  • two million administrative documents issues
  • 200,000 drivers licenses issued

    List of lieutenant generals and prefects of police

Before the French Revolution, the head of the Paris Police was the lieutenant général de police, whose office was created in March 1667 when the first modern police force in the world was set up by the government of King Louis XIV to police the city of Paris. The office vanished at the start of the French Revolution and police was vested in the hands of the Paris Commune. Reorganized by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1800, the Paris Police has been headed by the préfet de police since that time.

Lieutenant generals of police

  • Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie: March 29, 1667 - January 29, 1697
  • Marc René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson: January 29, 1697 - January 28, 1718
  • Louis Charles de Machault d'Arnouville : January 28, 1718 - January 26, 1720
  • Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson : January 26 - July 1, 1720
  • Gabriel Taschereau de Baudry: July 1, 1720 - April 26, 1722
  • Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson: April 26, 1722 - January 28, 1724
  • Nicolas Ravot d'Ombreval: January 28, 1724 - August 28, 1725
  • René Hérault : August 28, 1725 - December 21, 1739
  • Claude-Henri Feydeau de Marville: December 21, 1739 - May 27, 1747
  • Nicolas René Berryer: May 27, 1747 - October 29, 1757
  • Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin: October 29, 1757 - November 21, 1759
  • Antoine de Sartine: November 21, 1759 - August 24, 1774
  • Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir: August 24, 1774 - May 14, 1775
  • Joseph d'Albert: May 14, 1775 - June 19, 1776
  • Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir: June 19, 1776 - July 31, 1785
  • Louis Thiroux de Crosne: July 31, 1785 - July 16, 1789
Source: , on page 38 of the PDF.