The Prefecture of Police of Paris

Paris

The Paris Police Prefecture (French: Préfecture de police de Paris) is the unit of the French National Police which provides the police force for the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne. It is headed by the Prefect of Police (Préfet de police).

It is also in charge of emergency services, such as the Paris Fire Brigade, and performs administrative duties, such as issuing ID cards and driver licenses or monitoring alien residents. The Prefecture of Police also has limited security duties in the wider Île-de-France région.

The prefecture is a large building located in the Place Louis Lépine on the Île de la Cité. This building was built as a barracks for the Garde républicaine from 1863 to 1867 (architect Pierre-Victor Calliat) and was occupied by the Prefecture in 1871.

As it is the capital of France, with government assemblies and offices and foreign embassies, Paris poses special issues of security and public order. Consequently, the national government has been responsible for providing law enforcement and emergency services since the creation of the Lieutenancy General of Police (lieutenance générale de police) by Louis XIV on March 15, 1667. Disbanded at the start of the French Revolution in 1789, it was replaced by the current Prefecture of Police created by Napoléon I on February 17, 1800. This means that Paris does not have its own police municipale and that the Police Nationale provides these services directly as a subdivision of France's Ministry of the Interior.

In Parisian slang, the police are sometimes known as "the archers", a very old slang term in reference to the archers of the long-defunct Royal Watch.

Jurisdiction

Paris Police Headquarters at Place Louis Lépine, 1 rue de Lutèce, 75004 Paris (métro Cité).

The jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police was initially the Seine département. Its jurisdiction also included the communes (municipalities) of Saint-Cloud, Sèvres, Meudon, and Enghien-les-Bains, which were located in the Seine-et-Oise département. These four communes were added in the 19th century to the jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police in order to ensure special protection of the imperial/royal residences located there.

The Seine département was disbanded in 1968 and the jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police is now the city of Paris (which is both a commune and a département) and the three surrounding départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne. This territory made up of four départements is larger than the pre-1968 Seine département.

The Prefecture of Police also has limited jurisdiction over the whole Île-de-France région for the coordination of law enforcement. The Prefect of Police, acting as Prefect of the Defense Zone of Paris (Préfet de la Zone de Défense de Paris), is in charge of planning non-military defense measures to keep public order, guarantee the security of public services, and organize rescue operations (in case of natural disaster) for the whole Île-de-France région (which is made up of eight départements, the four inner ones being the regular jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police, and the four outer ones being outside of its regular jurisdiction). As such, he coordinates the work of the departmental préfets of Île-de-France.

Nomination and missions

Headed by a prefect titled The "Prefect of Police", who (as are all prefects) is named by the President in the Council of Ministers, and operates under the Minister of the Interior, commands the Prefecture which is responsible for the following:

• Security of Paris, if necessary in collaboration with the military;

  Issuing identification cards, drivers licenses, passports, residential and work permits for foreigners;

  Motor vehicle registration and traffic control;

  Registration of associations, and their creation, status modification and dissolution;

  Protection of the environment, general salubrity;

  Determining the dates of discount sales in large stores which can be held only twice a year;

  Issuing permits to bakeries/boulangeries for their summer vacation to assure that all the bakeries in a given neighborhood are not closed at the same time;

  Management of police and firefighters.

The Prefect of Police can issue arrêtés (local writs) defining rules pertaining to his field of competency. For instance, the rules of operation and security of Paris public parks are issued as joint arrêtés from the Mayor of Paris and the Prefect of Police.

Until 1977, Paris had indeed no mayor and the police was essentially in the hands of the préfet de police. However, the powers of the mayor of Paris were increased at the expense of those of the Préfet de Police in 2002, notably for traffic and parking decisions (the préfet retains the responsibility on main thoroughfares such as the Champs-Élysées avenue, and on any street during the organization of demonstrations).

There is also a prefect of Paris, prefect for the Île-de-France region, whose services handle some tasks not devoted to the Police Prefect, such as certain classes of building permits.

The French Intelligence Services

The French Intelligence Service are among the most acive in the world, with the brittish, ex-U.S.S.R, israeli and U.S. ones. The main difference with the U.S. intelligence service is that France is not a federal country whose cities are divided between different Princes of various Clans and factions.

The french Toreador had little difficulty to take hold of its structures and keep its control, using it at their own advantage, both to protect the Masquerade under the Secret Défense seal, or to learn more about their enemies, be it enemy Kindred ghouls, Mages, Lupines and mortal institutions like the infamous Inquisition and the Arcanum.

Ivan is the one with the greatest control of the Intelligence Services, making him one of the most powerful Kindred of France. He control both the D.S.T., the D.G.S.E. and the R.G.. Indeed: The Masques are all members of each of the three intelligence services.

The second in line is another Toreador: Alexis, whose Veilleurs are part of the mysterious Delta Department of the D.S.T..

Behind them, some can see the hand of Elle, and all wonder at the true extent of François Villon's own control over those vital component of french institution.

Unlike the C.I.A., who believes there is nothing best than having diplomatic agents, the french services believes in infiltrations of agents under any cover. Until recently, their intelligence network in africa was undisputed.

Now that the Cold War is over, a great part of the french Intelligence Services converted to Economic Intelligence (gathering informations about CEO and the like) to further french economic aims. They have done it so blatantly and so aggressively that even the U.S. agencies (who are not innocent in this kind of process) have been shocked, and have, in the opposite to the unofficial way, taken the whole affairs to the media eyes instead of reaching an arrangement with the french services.

While they are known as among the best Intelligence Services, they are not the best. The R.G. have less resources than the N.S.A., and their motivations does not reach the amplitude of the Mossad's. Still part of them have shown some inhuman quality that could well have been inspired by their Kindred masters, making this little but fanatic faction a very dangerous one, even surprising the New World Order. Still some believe the control the Kindred have over them is the cause for their difficulty to adapt fast enough to new technology...

D.C.R.G.: Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux

Also known as the R.G., whose mission was defined in 1951, this part of the National Police is to accumulate intelligence about anything, be it economic, political, social etc. information that could be of any use to the french gouvernment, to analyse them and to prevent threat to the public order and security.

The R.G. were known to operate for less than virtuous reasons for every french President and Minister. When Mitterand came to power in 1981, it was believed he would dissolve this service because of the too much great power it gave to the gouvernement, making it a kind of secret police that could enable a totalitarian gouvernment to take and keep the power in France. Somehow he decided otherwise, be it for the uses he saw in those services, or because of some Kindred influence?

The R.G. are known to have sensible information about people who participated to the Mai 1968 demonstration, not all of them mortals... Brujah asked for the R.G. to be dissolved (as well as other Intelligence Services) because of the threat to the Masquerade. The truth is that Villon finds his pet spies too much of a use to sacrify them to the Brujah false idealism...

Project 'Cercueil': The New World Order involvement

The R.G. were chosen by the New World Order for infiltration. They know the Kindred have control over it, and remember well the War of Traditions that weakened the Technocracy in France. So they decided to install passive moles in the system to accumulate sensible information that will help them for ulterior infiltration of other services.

D.G.S.E.: Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure

This Intelligence Service was created from different services as old as Napoleon and others created in the WW II when De Gaulle was coordinating resistance from Alger. After 1962, the S.D.E.C.E. (Service de la Documentation Extérieure et du Contre-Espionnage, created in 1946) was changed from the Prime Minister jurisdiction to the Defense Minister's one, becoming more and more militarized.

It was believed Mitterand, councelled by his Communist allies, would dissolve the S.D.E.C.E.. Instead, a civil is placed in command of the intelligence service. At first, his tries to humanize the S.D.E.C.E. will fail because of his status as a civilian. In 1982, the S.D.E.C.E.'s name was changed and renamed D.G.S.E., and the agency lost its legal power to operate in the french territory.

Since then, even if an Army officier became the D.G.S.E.'s director, the proportion of civilians is increasing up to 60 per 100 in 1993.

The D.G.S.E. is divided in different parts named Direction or Division:

       Direction de la Stratégie:
       Direction du Renseignement:
       Division Technique:
       Division des Opérations:
       Division Action: 

But the latest developpement of secret wars blured this limit, and lately, the D.G.S.E. agents were known to operate within french territory without telling the D.S.T. about it. this creates a lot of administrative friction, and more than once, the two institutions were told to stop their bickering and cooperate.

Most of the D.G.S.E. agents are military officers who are chosen within the Army for their mutliple talents. They have limited control over the Gendarmes (Military Police who uphold law in certain non-city zones, and help the National Police in city zones), as well as over most military complex (within Rank limits, of course).

Their failures are known by all: The greatest one is the Rainbow Warrior incident, a.k.a. Operation Satanic. What few people know is that the D.G.S.E. agents who put the bomb were never caught. The Turenge's were only there to locate the boat and take some information about it and its crew. They were caught and they paid for the true bombers (some arrangement made them do a 3-years prison sentence in the french atoll island of Hoa...). Other technological thefts were discovered by the F.B.I. in the USA, against Texas Instruments and I.B.M..

Their successes are not known: Among them, the software named Taïga, who help filtering pertinent informations among non-interesting ones, able to treat 1 billion caracters per second, in any language. I.B.M. was known to try to buy the company who created this software, but the deal was forbidden by France (Taïga's company will soon become a part of the Ministery of Defense). Some political murders were attributed to the D.G.S.E., like the murder of an ex-minister of Papadoc in Haïti, or the murder of a terrorist working for the algerian FLN. Intelligence about how the U.S.A. supported Rwanda's rebels, about political and militaristic decisions of the Indian gouvernment, etc..

In a more Vampiric viewpoint, the D.G.S.E. is seen as Ivan's personnal tool against Anarchs and most of all Brujah, as it was used to prevent post-Mai 1968 influence from U.S.S.R. and find possible Communist Brujah infiltration. And forget about coming in France into caskets: This kind of special mailing is verified whenever possible.

A rumour tells François Villon uses the D.G.S.E Kindred and Ghoul agents to collect non-direct information about the situation in Russia where few or none can have them.

D.S.T.: Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire

Created in 1944, the D.S.T. is to protect the french state against exterior influences that could threaten its security. Under the juristiction of the Interior Ministery, the D.S.T. is seen as a kind of Police dealing with exterior influences. Its power in France increased in 1982 when the S.D.E.C.E. became the D.G.S.E. and lost the legal right to operate in french territories.

The D.S.T. is known to record all the internet trafic: There is a french law saying that no one can send encoded information without giving the keys to the french institutions. The D.S.T. once surprised a student from Toulouse who codified his Email through PGP. Of course, they visited him in his little appartment and investigated the poor guy's past. He has now a file in the french services...

The Delta Department: The Veilleur involvement

The Delta Department was created in 1944 when Villon gave Alexis the authorization to use the Intelligence resources of the D.S.T.. It fits right as more of less in the same time, a department had been created to study occult forces. Instead of monitoring it, or dissolving it, Villon asked Alexis to control it from the interior and use it to help his own investigations about occult enemies, be it Mages, Tremere (!), or corruption creatures.

All the members of the Delta Department are Kindred or Ghouls of the Veilleur organization. While they usually work under the jurisdiction of the D.S.T., they have legal R.G. accreditation, and so have the legal right to ask informations from the Renseignements Généraux.

French Services' Hierarchy

You won't find here precise information about how work this kind of services, but still a WoD-like hierarchy and authorized Background compatible with the Project Twilight sourcebook.

Rank Rank DST/RG Rank DGSE Resources Army Forces Influence 0 None None - - -

• Agent Aspirant ** - -
  • Inspecteur Lieutenant ** ** (3) *
    • Commissaire Capitaine *** ** (15) **
      • Commissaire Divisionnaire Colonel *** *** ***
        • Prefet General *** ***** * *****

Note about Army Forces: The elements are always at least trained (that means Army Forces **), but their numbers are fewer for those of lower levels (number or persons in parenthesis). Army Forces is a Background found in Elysium: The Elder Wars.

Note about Influence: The influences stretches in the police or army influence, as well as in justice.