Bas-relief of Ancient Rome vigiles by Carlo Sorgi (1941) at the Italian National Firefighters Training School

When I wrote a post about Ancient Roman law enforcement, I discovered how complicated the system was. Vigiles were principally firefighters but carried out policing duties as well and cohortes urbanae  were heavy duty riot police. They’d been formed to counterbalance the enormous power of the Praetorian Guard which also had a weighty presence in Rome.

As a member of the European Investigation and Regulation Service (EIRS), Mel often works with law enforcement bodies. In Double Identity, she has close encounters with the London Metropolitan Police, the tiny Port of London Authority Police and the Belgian Federal Police.  In Double Pursuit, she and McCracken also came across three services in Italy: the Carabinieri, the Guardia de Finanza and the Polizia di Stato.

In Double Stakes, when they work with French and German law enforcement services, it becomes a great deal more complex!

French police

Background
France is a centralised state with a pronounced sense of nationhood, even though the regions are strong in cultural and sometimes linguistic terms. While a mutual mild resentment exists between Paris and the rest of (provincial) France, every French person is proud of being French. This is especially so in light of  a great triumph such as hosting the Olympic Games or in defence of an external threat especially on its wine and cheese. France is also the home of high art, an independent nuclear deterrent, the original charter of the rights of man and a strong republican ethic. Some regional and departmental autonomy exists, but in the end the national administration calls the shots.

The National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale) is a branch of the French armed forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, with additional duties from the Ministry of Armed Forces. It’s the heir to the Maréchaussée, the oldest police force in France, dating back to the Middle Ages. The French Gendarmerie has influenced the culture and traditions of gendarmerie forces around the world, especially in independent countries from the former French colonial empire.

Gendarmerie policing a demonstration in Paris

The Gendarmerie nationale mainly deals with the countryside and policing of smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas. It’s often called in for crowd and riot control and criminal investigation, including cybercrime. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfils a range of military and defence missions. Its investigations/detective arm is called Brigade de recherche and its forensic service is the Identification criminelle.

The National Police (Police nationale), formerly known as the Sûreté nationale, is a civilian force fully under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. Although a police force of some type has existed since the Revolution, it has gone through many changes in the intervening two hundred odd years.

The 20th century version had its roots in the 1930s as the Sûreté nationale, but the fully national police force was created in August 1941 under the Vichy regime. Like many Vichy organisations, it was dissolved after the Second World War. Revived in 1966 by merging the reconstituted Sûreté nationale and the Préfecture de Police of Paris, the police nationale now carries out normal law enforcement in large towns and cities. Their forensic service is called Police scientifique and detectives are usually called police judiciaire (PJ for short) and wear orange armbands when on active duty.

(Some towns and cities also have a Police municipale run by the local authority and which is responsible for local security and public order, bye-laws, traffic, urban planning, assisting local citizens. Suspects apprehended are handed over to the national police or the national gendarmerie for processing.)

German police

Background
Germany has always been a country of regions, each with a distinct local character. Today, the country is split into Länder, federal regional states which make up the nation.

City states, kingdoms and duchies – many dating from the Middle Ages – were welded together only in 1870 under the dominance of Prussia. Post-First World War, democracy was given a try under the Weimar Republic but fell to the Third Reich and the Nazis. Post-1945, Germany was split into zones with the British, American and French zones becoming West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and the Soviet zone becoming East Germany (German Democratic Republic). Come reunification 1989-1991, both merged into the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

However, merging minds, values, hopes and behaviours cannot be achieved overnight. Even now significant resentment exists along the old demarcation lines of the former two Germanies, plus deep-seated associations by people to their region or Land. Radical change such as the reunification caused joy and upset, opened new opportunities and took away old certainties.

Nevertheless, the German authorities are making good progress, but tinderboxes are still there, open to exploitation by extremists seeking power for themselves. My feeling is that it will take at least two generations for them to be quietened, hopefully extinguished.

Two layers:

Federal (Bundespolizei, BPOL) – uniformed national police force which deals with crimes across the whole of Germany including transport security, border control and protection of federal buildings. Includes Border Guard Group 9 (GSG 9) which was formed to deal with terrorist incidents, especially hostage situations.

State (Landespolizei) – uniformed police which covers general law enforcement in each of the states (Länder). Includes tactical units.

BKA (Bundeskriminalamt) – Federal Criminal Police, responsible for gathering intelligence and dealing with forensic matters, research and serious criminal investigations including organised crime and terrorism. The BKA conducts its own national investigations and international liaison and intervenes in state investigations when requested or when an investigation involves two or more states.

BKA Berlin Office Treptow Park   (Photo: Aude CC BY-SA 3.0  via Wikimedia) Commons

LKA (Landeskriminalamt) – independent law enforcement agency in most German states, directly subordinate to the local ministry of the interior in that state. The LKA supervises police operations aimed at preventing and investigating criminal offences and coordinates investigations of serious crime. It leads in cases of serious crime within their state, e.g. drug trafficking, organised crime, environmental and white-collar crime or extremist and terrorist offences.

Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) – Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, primarily the domestic intelligence service of Germany, concerned with internal espionage, treason and sedition. Its officers have  no powers of arrest and cannot use force, but it carries out surveillance and supplies the BKA and other police agencies with information e.g. on terrorist groups.

(Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – Federal Intelligence Service, equivalent to MI6 in the UK, but they are not in this story.)

German police ranks (equivalents)
Kriminalkommissar – inspector
Kriminalhauptkommissar – junior chief inspector
Erster Kriminalhauptkommissar – senior chief inspector
Kriminaloberrat – senior superintendent

So next time you think policing in your own country is complicated, you can be comforted that you are not alone!

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA,  Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

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