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French Gendarmerie

In France, the Gendarmerie Nationale is the national military police force. Its missions include:

• The policing of countryside areas and of small towns outside of the jurisdiction of the French National Police.
• 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.

Similar forces exist in other countries such as Italy (the Carabinieri), Turkey (Jandarma), Romania (Jandarmeria), Austria (Bundesgendarmerie), Republic of Moldova (Trupele de Carabinieri), and used to exist in Belgium, where the Gendarmerie (Rijkswacht in Dutch) was passed to civilian control and merged with municipal police forces into a new corps called the Federal Police.

While administratively a part of the armed forces, thus under the aegis of the Ministry of Defense, it is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior for its missions within France, and criminal investigations are run under the supervision of judges. Its members operate in uniform and exceptionally in plainclothes.

Career gendarmes are either commissioned or non-commissioned officers. The lower ranks consist in auxiliary gendarmes on limited-time contracts.

The officer school of the Gendarmerie Nationale is located in Melun.

The Gendarmerie Nationale is divided into the gendarmerie départementale and the gendarmerie mobile.

The Gendarmerie Départementale

The Gendarmerie Départementale conducts local policing functions throughout the French territory. Its uniforms are blue.

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 administrative region), themselves divided into groupements (one for each département, thus the name), themselves divided into compagnies (one for each arrondissement).

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 areas of high delinquency;
• Units for prevention of juvenile delinquency;
• Highway patrols
• Mountain units, specialized in search and rescue operations, surveillance and inquiries in mountaineous areas.

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 enquiries 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' authorization.

The Gendarmerie Mobile

It is divided into legions, similarly as the Gendarmerie Départementale. Its uniforms are black.

Its main responsabilities are

• crowd and riot control

• security of public buildings
• all policing tasks that require large amounts of personnel (Vigipirate counterterrorism patrols, searches in the countryside...).

Those tasks are similar to those of the police units known as Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, for which they are often mistaken.

It has specialized units:

• the group of security of intervention of the Gendarmerie Nationale (GSIGN), consisting of:
  • the intervention group of the Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN), an elite SWAT team,
  • the parachutist squadron of the Gendarmerie Nationale (EPIGN),
  • the security group of the President of the Republic, whose responsability is to ensure the safety of the President and of its guests.

In addition, it has armored personnel carriers, throughout the French territory;

• the armored group at Versailles-Satory, consisting of 3 squadrons of armored personnel carriers and 1 squadron of light tanks with 90mm cannons.

Such units may intervene abroad in varied cases such as a hostage crisis or the support of peacekeeping operations.

Special divisions

Gendarmerie Maritime

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.

Gendarmerie des Transports Aériens

Placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the direction of civilian aviation of the French Republican Guard

The Garde Républicaine, is a ceremonial unit based in Paris, whose main mission is to guard official buildings and perform honor services.