Gendarmerie

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Members of Italy's Carabinieri on public order duties in Florence
A Turkish Gendarmerie General Command trooper on guard at Topkapı Palace in Istanbul

A gendarmerie (

Internal Troops, which are present in many countries of the former Soviet Union
and its former allied countries.

Etymology

The word

Ancien Régime
was renamed to Gendarmerie.

Historically, the spelling in English was gendarmery, but now the French spelling gendarmerie is more common. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) uses gendarmery as the principal spelling, whereas Merriam-Webster uses gendarmerie as the principal spelling.

Title and status

These forces are normally titled "gendarmerie", but gendarmeries may bear other titles, for instance the Carabinieri in Italy, the National Republican Guard in Portugal, the Guardia Civil in Spain, the Royal Marechaussee in the Netherlands or Internal Troops/National Guard in Ukraine and Russia.

As a result of their duties within the civilian population, gendarmeries are sometimes described as "paramilitary" rather than "military" forces (especially in the English-speaking world where policing is rarely associated with military forces) although this description rarely corresponds to their official status and capabilities. Gendarmes are very rarely deployed in military situations, except in humanitarian deployments abroad.

A gendarmerie may come under the authority of a ministry of defence (e.g. Algeria, Netherlands and Poland), a ministry of the interior (e.g. Argentina, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine) or even both ministries at once (e.g. Chile, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain).[5] Generally there is some coordination between ministries of defence and the interior over the use of gendarmes. In addition, some gendarmeries can be part of a civilian police force, such as the Israel Border Police or "Magav", which is the gendarmerie branch of the civilian Israel Police.

A few forces which are no longer considered military retain the title "gendarmerie" for reasons of tradition. For instance, the French language title of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC) (i.e., Royal Gendarmerie of Canada) because this force traditionally had some military-style functions (although separate from the Canadian Army), and have even been awarded battle honours and has retained its status as a regiment of dragoons. The Argentine National Gendarmerie is a military force in terms of training, identity and public perception, and was involved in combat in the Falklands War; however, it is classified as a "security force" not an "armed force", to exercise jurisdiction over the civilian population under Argentine law.

Since different countries may make different use of institutional terms such as "gendarmerie", there are cases in which the term may become confusing. For instance, in the French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland the "gendarmeries" are the uniformed civil police (see: Gendarmerie (Switzerland)). In Chile, the word "gendarmerie" refers for historic reasons to the prison service (the "Chilean Gendarmerie"), while the actual gendarmerie force is called the "carabineros".

In some cases, a police service's military links are ambiguous and it can be unclear whether a force should be defined as a gendarmerie (e.g. Mexico's

Imperial Russia's Special Corps of Gendarmes performed a variety of functions as an armed rural constabulary, urban riot control units, frontier guards, intelligence agents and political police. Prior to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, some policing was based on the Royal Irish Constabulary— initially an armed force located in police barracks, routinely unarmed after the 1880s when most civil unrest had subsided. Some consider this a gendarmerie, although this is tendentious as the subsequent Garda Síochána
of the Irish Free State were also uniformly armed but not described as a gendarmerie.

In China, after numerous reorganizations and transfers of control between the PLA and the MPS, the People's Armed Police, a gendarmerie service, was created on 19 June 1982. The establishment of the PAP highlighted the efforts to increase the professionalization of the security apparatus, as well as the absorption of numerous PLA demobilized personnel, in the wake of growing unrest.[citation needed]

In 2014 the Mexican Federal Police, a heavily armed force which has many attributes of a gendarmerie, created a new seventh branch of service called the National Gendarmerie Division. The new force would initially number 5,000 personnel and was created with the assistance of the French gendarmerie.[7]

Role and services

In comparison to civilian police forces, gendarmeries may provide a more disciplined force whose military capabilities (e.g., armoured group in France with armoured personnel carriers) make them more capable of dealing with armed groups and with all types of violence. On the other hand, the necessity of a more stringent selection process for military service, especially in terms of physical prowess and health, restricts the pool of potential recruits in comparison to those from which a civilian police force could select.

The growth and expansion of gendarmerie units worldwide has been linked to an increasing reluctance by some governments to use military units typically entrusted with external defence for combating internal threats.[1] A somewhat related phenomenon has been the formation of paramilitary units which fall under the authority of civilian police agencies. Since these are not strictly military forces, however, they are not considered gendarmerie.[8]

In France, the gendarmerie is in charge of rural areas and small towns (typically less than 10,000 inhabitants) which represent 95% of the territory and close to 50% of the population. Besides its territorial organization, it has crowd and riot control units (the

nuclear weapons
sites.

French influence

The use of military organisations to police civilian populations is common to many time periods and cultures. Being a French concept, the French Gendarmerie has been the most influential model for such an organisation.

Many countries that were once under French rule and influence have a gendarmerie.

Napoleonic influence for instance but, while Italy still has the Italian equivalent known as the Carabinieri, Belgium and Austria's gendarmeries have merged with the civil police (in, respectively, 2001 and 2005). Many former French colonies, especially in Africa, also have gendarmeries. The Dutch Royal Marechaussee
was created by King William I to replace the French Gendarmerie after French rule ended.

The national police force of Canada, the

and they have been awarded the status of a regiment of dragoons, with a military battle standard displaying their battle honours following service in World War I. Those honours include Northwest Canada, South Africa, The Great War, and the Second World War.

A common gendarmerie symbol is a flaming grenade, first used as insignia by the French force.

Role in modern conflicts

Gendarmes play an important role re-establishing law and order in conflict areas, a task which is suited to their purpose, training and capabilities.[9][10] Gendarmeries are widely used for internal security and in peacekeeping operations, for instance in the former Yugoslavia[9] and in Ivory Coast,[11] sometimes via the European Gendarmerie Force.[12]

See also

References