Administrative police (France)

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Administrative police in France are

• Management that protects the general interest of society;
• Protection of the most vulnerable, generally by a more powerful party, for example of a consumer or a non-professional from a professional, or of a tenant from a landlord. Similarly labour law also falls into this category.^[3]

A norm of ordre public is an imperative that the parties cannot set aside, generally in the name of protecting the weaker party.

Administrative policing can fall under either local or national jurisdiction, but does not include searching for, or arresting, the perpetrator(s) of a particular offense.

The separation of administrative and judicial policing functions dates from the 1795 Code of Offences and Penalties, and is still in force today. This functional distinction does not necessarily imply an organizational separation: a single organization may perform both types of policing: an example is the National Gendarmerie.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

Administrative policing is an activity intended to assure the ordre public but does not include searching for, or arresting, the perpetrator of a given breach of the law.

This teleological definition focuses on the goal of administrative policing, and takes into account the following functional and organic definitions:

• Administrative policing designates activity tied to public safety.
• Administrative policing designates the agencies in which this activity is invested.

Concept of ordre public

Administrative policing is defined by its goal of public peace (

The Conseil d'État can also take into account esthetic issues (2 August 1924), Leroux, 18 February 1972, Chambre syndicale des entreprises artisanales du bâtiment de la Haute-Garonne: the Conseil d'État overturned an order of the mayor of Toulouse that for esthetic reasons very precisely regulated the dimensions and shape of funerary monuments in the cemetery). But this decision is outdated, and currently put back in question by the law of 19 December 2008[8] which gave the mayor police power over the monuments under the supervision of the administrative judge.

The legality of administrative police actions to protect individuals against themselves (22 January 1982), Auto défense^[9] and 9 July 2001, Préfet du Loiret), and protect a person mise en examen or charged with a crime. (TC 19 October 1998, veuve Laroche)^[10]) or protected the location of a possible crime (TC 12 December 2005, Prefect of Champagne-Ardenne).

Administrative and judicial police

The judicial police are charged with noting an infraction and finding or arresting its authors. Its function is thus repressive, as opposed to the preventive nature of administrative policing.

The distinction is essential where jurisdiction is uncertain and may lie with first an administrative judge, then a judicial judge, as it for responsibility, which is more easily triggered by administrative policing activities.

Characteristics of administrative policing

Administrative policing manifests unilateral prescriptions. These administrative decisions may take the form of regulations (decrees, arrêtés, ...) or individual rulings (individual authorization, visa or use licence, permit, ID check, body searches, ...). Police powers cannot be delegated to an individual.

Administrative police power can be general or special. In the latter case it applies only to certain categories of person (foreigners), of places (railway stations, airports), or of activities (hunting, fishing, cinema).

The administration has a duty to exercise its police power, but refusing to do so is only illegal if this refusal results in a failure to meet its legal obligations to maintain the ordre public. In the same way, a refusal to take police action need not be explained. Police actions never create rights and therefore may always be withdrawn, since the administration only acts on its responsibility in cases of faute lourde.

Mixed operations

The distinction between administrative policing and judicial policingis nonetheless sometimes delicate. Indeed, it is often exercised by the same individuals (police, gendarmes) and an administrative police operation may transform into a judicial police operation. For example, police officers who carry out body searches ("frisking") at the entrance to a stadium do so as an exercise of their administrative police powers (prevention of violence), but if in so doing they find narcotics, any subsequent arrest would be a judicial police operation (acting on an infraction). Inversely, a judicial police operation may transform into an administrative police operation. For example towing and impounding a vehicle (a judiciary police operation) but once the vehicle was impounded, an administrative police operation.

Jurisprudence concerning the distinction between types of policing system

In 1951, with the consorts Baud judgement,

The Prime minister as holder of the general regulatory power (Article 21 of the Constitution of 4 October 1958) exercises police power at the national level .^[15]

The special authorities of the police are different: the

The préfet de zone de défense et de sécurité disposes of both general and special powers.[16]

Departmental level

The president of the

Le police prefect is the police authority at the departmental level for traffic on highways (routes nationales) outside of municipalities but especially for the many special police forces (hunting, fishing, environment, sanitation, and through control of municipal police).

The power of the prefect also extends to continental waters.^[18]

Commune level

The mayor exercises police power on the level of the commune.

In communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants, however, as well as of certain smaller communes, police personnel fall under the state's French Civil Service even though it executes the arrêtés of the mayor's policing. The prefect assures respect for the public peace.

In Paris, the mayor only has very limited powers in matters of policing: fairs and markets, and cleanliness of the public roadways.^[19] The other police powers belong to the prefect of police.

See also

References

Works cited

• John Bell; Sophie Boyron; Simon Whittaker (27 March 2008). Principles of French Law (2 ed.). OUP Oxford. pp. 129–.
  OCLC 865331945
  .
• Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, Volume 8. W. & R. Chambers, Limited. 1896. pp. 286–.
  OCLC 235817290
  .
• Donnelly, Daniel (21 January 2013). Municipal Policing in the European Union: Comparative Perspectives. Springer. pp. 37–.
  OCLC 1005811336
  .

• Jacques de Maillard; Wesley G. Skogan, eds. (2021). Policing in France. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
  OCLC 1144787505
  .

• France: Penal Code of 1810

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