3 ms·

I've heard that France is similarly military in style, and that a lot of Europe is the same, their police culture is military. Britain was the one that innovate

• masklinn 11y ago
  > I've heard that France is similarly military in style The french situation is a bit complex. * the national police is the regular police, they are more armed than bobbies but not heavily so (IIRC the standard sidearm is a SIG Pro variant — the SP2022), their jurisdiction is mostly cities and large towns but there are rapid-response, riot and anti-gang police units which tend to be more heavily armed, national surveillance also falls under the national police * the gendarmerie is a branch of the military mostly tasked with police duties in small towns and rural zones (including highway patrolling), the regular gendarme may be somewhat more heavily armed than the regular policeman but not much so IIRC, they also have military police, special forces/counter terrorism units, maritime surveillance (and sea police), etc… * finally since the start of the Infinite War (on terror) and the endless "vigipirate", actual military forces have been patrolling public spaces (e.g. train stations) more or less continually since the mid-90s.