The urban neighbourhood police department
To help, serve and protect
Entrusted with the task of leading the everyday fight against petty and more serious crimes and, in particular, crimes committed on city streets (violent theft, pickpocketing, burglary, vandalism, etc), the Urban Neighbourhood Police Department is in direct contact with the population in each arrondissement.
An everyday job
Set up to provide a more community-focused police service that is both more accessible and visible for the people of Paris, the Urban Neighbourhood Police has nearly 100 public enquiry offices situated all over the city. A total of 20 central arrondissement police stations, which comprise several local units and SARIJ, the division responsible for processing and investigating charges, are on hand to speak to, inform and assist members of the public 24 hours a day.
Attached to central police stations, neighbourhood police are assigned to individual patrol areas. Their role is to deter crime, combat anti-social behaviour and maintain law and order in public areas.
In analysing local crime in great detail, each police station deploys their officers in operations targeted at very specific objectives (crimes and offences committed in specific places and at specific times: street violence, drug trafficking, peddling, etc). They receive the support of specialised units with powers that extend across the entire capital or to specific parts of it, such as the Security Squad and Anti-Crime Units.
Preventing crime
Neighbourhood Police maintain very close links with local people (residents, shop owners, building caretakers, etc) to help prevent and fight local crime…
Informing, alerting and raising awareness: The Urban Neighbourhood Police Department engage in wide-ranging crime-prevention work to protect all sections of society, particularly the most vulnerable. The prevention and communication units of the arrondissement police stations organise talks for elderly people (advising them how to take care on the streets, guarding against bogus callers, etc), children and teenagers (the dangers of drugs, racketeering and all forms of violence in the school, road safety), tourists and people in occupations where they may be exposed to crime.
Specific prevention initiatives have also been set up, such as Ville-Vie-Vacances, which are targeted at children unable to go away on holiday, and the Tranquillité Vacances initiative, which provides citizens with a home surveillance service while they are away on their summer holidays.
A regional response to crime on public transport
Following the creation of the Regional Transport Police Service in September 2002, crime on the region’s rail networks has dropped by nearly half, with a particularly significant drop in pickpocketing being recorded.
In response to the random and widespread nature of the crime on public transport, a division has been set up that is entirely devoted to imposing security on all forms of public transport, both above and below ground, in the entire Île-de-France region.
Placed under the sole operational command of the Préfet de Police, the Regional Transport Police Service works in conjunction with the departmental police and gendarmerie services and the transport security services of the RATP and the SNCF, to ensure the safety and security of the seven million people who use the Île-de-France rail network on a daily basis.
Every day it deploys 130 patrols at 600 railway stations and on 700 metro, regional (RER) and local trains, focusing its efforts on the routes and the times of day that pose the greatest problems in terms of security.
Key facts and figures
- 26,000 police officers
- more than 1 000,000 calls a year to the police’s “17” emergency line
- 1 million enquiries dealt with at police stations each year
- 563,000 crimes investigated per year
