National Police (France) in the context of "Prefecture of Police"

The Bouches-du-Rhône Police Prefecture (French: Préfecture de police des Bouches-du-Rhône), headed by the Bouches-du-Rhône Police Prefect (Préfet de police des Bouches-du-Rhône), is a Prefecture of Police part of the National Police, which is a police force in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. It was created on 16 October 2012.

The National Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie nationale [ʒɑ̃daʁməʁi nɑsjɔnal]) is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police. The Gendarmerie 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. Its responsibilities include policing smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas, crowd and riot control, and criminal investigation, including cybercrime. By contrast, the National Police is a civilian law enforcement agency that is in charge of policing cities and larger towns. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defence missions. The Gendarmerie has a strength of around 102,269 people (as of 2018).

The Gendarmerie is the heir of the Maréchaussée, the oldest police force in France, dating back to the Middle Ages. The Gendarmerie has influenced the culture and traditions of gendarmerie forces around the world, especially in independent countries from the former French colonial empire.

The GIGN (French: Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale pronunciation; transl. "National Gendarmerie Intervention Group") is the elite tactical unit of the French National Gendarmerie. Among its missions are counterterrorism, hostage rescue, surveillance of national threats, protection of government officials, critical site protection (such as French embassies in war-torn countries), and targeting organized crime.

Established in 1973 and becoming operational in 1974, the GIGN was initially created as a relatively small tactical unit specialized in sensitive hostage situations, but has since grown into a larger force with expanded responsibilities and capabilities. It is now composed of nearly 1,000 operators. The main unit comprises around 400 operators based in Satory, near Versailles in the Paris Region. Approximately 600 additional operators make up fourteen regional GIGN branches called AGIGNs (French: Antennes du GIGN), seven of which are also located in metropolitan France and the remaining seven, in French overseas territories. The unit shares jurisdiction of French sovereign territory with the special response units of the National Police, and its training centre is located in Beynes.

The municipal police (French: Police Municipale) are the local police of towns and cities in France. There are 24,000 municipal police officers in 4,555 communities. The municipal police are one of the three components of French policing, alongside the National Police and the National Gendarmerie, with about 145,000 police and 98,000 soldiers respectively.

Policing in Paris is the responsibility of the Paris Police Prefecture, part of the National Police. However, Paris now has a municipal police which is replacing the Direction de la prévention, de la sécurité et de la protection (fr) (DPSP) (Prevention, Security and Protection Directorate) which is composed of agents with some municipal police powers titled inspecteurs de sécurité (Security Inspectors). The police powers of the Paris mayor however remain more limited than the powers of regular French mayor.

The Compagnies républicaines de sécurité (CRS; French: [kɔ̃paɲi ʁepyblikɛn də sekyʁite], Republican Security Corps) are the general reserve of the French National Police. They are primarily involved in general security missions, but the task for which they are best known is crowd and riot control. The DCCRS has seven units: in Paris, Lille, Rennes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon and Metz.

There are 60 "general service" CRS companies, specialized in public order and crowd control; nine "motorway" companies (French: Compagnies autoroutières) specialized in highway patrol in urban areas; and six "zonal" motorcycle units (one per Defense zone.) Two additional companies and several mountain detachments administratively attached to local companies specialize in Mountain Rescue. One company (CRS n°1) specializes in VIP escort. The National Police band is also a CRS unit.