Contenu du sommaire : L'administration de la sécurité.

Security : a New Policy. Measures taken in 1997 mark a turning point in the history of security policies in France. They highlight the implications of security measures and seek to globalise problems while defining a multitude of specific strategies from police reforms to measures taken to reduce violence in schools. Current pertinent choices include co-ordinating and zoning actions in order to reduce social inequalities and working at both national and European levels. Yet there remain questions of political orientation which merit close scrutiny and sociological analysis. The gamble of new public policies cannot be won unless there is a change in institutional culture so that institutions recognise the power of negotiation of ail social partners.

Ingredients for a Sociology of Insecurity. While the number of assaults has been more or less stable for several years, the sociology of victimisation is changing. The explosion of violence, linked with entry into consumer society, has coincided with a decrease in surveillance of public spaces. Moreover, the problem of petty crime has not been dealt with in any depth. A show was made, in the 70s, of introducing a system of juvenile justice and in attempting integration through the labour market. With the crisis came a radical modification of the data. Integration via employment became difficult and petty crime, comprising thefts and minor assaults, generated an enormous insecurity complex. In response to a growing sense of exclusion the insecurity which is present in certain problematic districts may be partially explained by a desire to affirm an identity. In the face of this phenomenon, the state has shown its capacity to adapt.

The Construction of a New Doctrine of Security. Both in its conception and its organisation, the maintenance of public order has undergone profound changes in recent decades. The initial phenomenon has been a development in private security services. Furthermore, the state continues to assume its tradition role of maintaining order, but in new ways. In France, recent reforms centre the new doctrine of security upon notions of partnership and proximity. Finally, beyond the state, the international dimension of criminality is on the increase due to the development of migratory flows and to the possibilities opened up by new information technologies and communication. In the light of this new phenomenon only an organised flight waged at a global level would seem capable of being effective.

Expertise in the Area of Security. Expertise plays an ever increasing role in contemporary society. In the area of security, the role of experts has only recently begun to develop in France in contrast to Anglo-Saxon countries. The Higher Institute of Internal Security, created in 1989, has an important role in this respect. The functions and importance of expertise in the area of security have been renewed by the introduction of local security contracts. Experts, whether working independently or in small groups, play an accompanying role in the process of putting into operation and watching over the execution of these contracts which have to adapt to the particular needs of each area. Larger firms have still not yet begun to take part in this process.

The Politico-Economic Structuring of the Private Security Sector. The private security sector is developing continually. Statistical studies show the emergence of sizeable companies, which account for the majority of activity in the field. The area of biggest development is that of video-surveillance. In response to this development in the private security sector public authorities have set up a regulatory framework. In twenty years there have been three major legislative stages. The attitude of public powers has evolved from one of suspicion to one of coexistence. The orientation and programming law of 1995 in fact acknowledges that certain private security operations should participate in the ‘co-production' of collective security. This new plan of action for public/private collaboration should be further reinforced in the near future.

The Police and Political Alternations. The effect of shifts in political power allows the level of politicisation of key posts to be ascertained by following the career paths of their occupants. The influence of political alternations on the nominations at the head of police authorities varies a lot from one authority to another. Moreover, promotions are more or less swift depending upon the function exercised. It appears that the politicisation of the police, and particularly of authorities, is real, but that it is not uniform, and especially that the political criterion is not the only one used to designate appointments.

The State of Trade-Unionism in the Police. The level of trade-union membership is exceptionally high in the police force. Trade-unionism in the police is therefore strong ; it is equally autonomous but also divided, due notably to its categorised nature. Following on from the 1980s, when a union, the FASP, occupied centre stage pursuing a policy of co-management with governing authorities, unionism in the police has entered a complex phase of recomposition and regrouping, marked by internal crises and demands for the pursuit of corporate interests.

The Shift in Tasks of the General Inspection of the National Police : the Audit. In recent years the traditional tasks of scrutiny carried out by the General Inspection of the National Police have shifted towards complementary tasks such as undertaking studies, evaluations and audits. The latter have a preventative dimension, although scrutiny of activities is often a necessary preliminary measure and this means that audits are often badly received by the service targeted. In constructing a detailed methodology for the audit and in putting it into practice, the General Inspection has seen its competencies enlarged and its tasks increased.

Towards a European Policing Policy ? It is without doubt that, dating back before economic co-operation, co-operation in police matters has a logic to it which is largely independent of the European institutional framework, even if the process of europeanisation has brought about a redefinition of its forms. Adding a preventative dimension to the traditional reactive aspect of police work, the concept of ‘internal security' is developing without the community institutions having yet mastered this evolution.

Police and Politics Memories of a Prefect of Police After a brief historical account of the function of the prefect of police, Maurice Grimaud recalls the difficulties encountered by five of his predecessors in this function when they were divided between their duty of loyalty and their own opinions. The author, using three key events in his own career, then illustrates the sometimes difficult relations which arise between political powers and the representative of the authority of the state. Director General of national security at the beginning of the 1960s, prefect of police during the troubles of May 1968, member of the Minister for Home Office's team at the beginning of the 1980s, Maurice Grimaud recalls the balance which, in times of exceptional circumstances, must be struck between legality and state security, loyalty and personal initiative, repression and conciliation.

The Destiny of a Report. The 1982 report on the national police by Jean-Michel Belorgey was immediately buried. Since then, a good number of its proposals and the debates which it raised remain relevant today. The reports which followed it have also not been successful, either because they simply made consensual proposals, or because no account was ever really taken of them. It is necessary to reflect upon the way to achieve more perseverance in this area.

Police Trade-Unions and the Role of the Police. A member and a former member of police trade-unions are questioned about their vision of the police and its evolution. They give their view of police trade-unionism, its role and its weaknesses, notably a certain resistance to change. The two officers questioned plead for the development of local policing. They contrast their pragmatic vision with the often too theoretical apprehension of administrative officers.

Responses to Juvénile Delinquency In 1998 Christine Lazerges and Jean-Pierre Balduck made a report to the Prime Minister on behalf of the inter-ministerial taskforce on the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency. The 135 proposals contained in this report are oriented around the two axes of prevention and repression. Better preventive measures require mobilisation on the part of those responsible for socialisation, in schools and through integration into urban policy issues particularly. Introduction of the repressive measures was initiated by the application of the whole spectrum of measures introduced by the Order of 2 November 1945 on juvenile delinquency, followed by the renewed responses of the police and judicial authorities achieved via a greater specialisation of police, judicial and incarceration structures.

Local Policing. The idea of local policing may be defined equally well by what it is as opposed to what it is not. By sketching successive opposing strategies it is possible to identify the form of local policing, as it is, or as it ought to be, put into operation in France. Long since at the centre of debate and reform projects, local policing stands for neither community policing nor policing detached from central authority, nor, moreover, for policing for better-off neighbourhoods.

Prevention Policies in Europe. In Europe policies for fighting crime have traditionally respected two traditions, with a divide operating between northern and southern countries. The spectacular rise in crime, and in comparable forms, is leading to a coming together of European policies. These policies are primarily centred around prevention at Community level.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Community Policing in the United Kingdom. At a time when, in France, we are looking towards creating closer links between the police and the population, it is imperative to take a look at British community policing, which is often identified as a model. While a traditional institution, community policing in practice is capable of adaptation, whether it be in Northern Ireland because of the opposition between Catholics and Protestants, or in England and Wales due to the presence of poorly integrated ethnic minorities and social conflicts. Over and above the solutions adopted to respond to these problems, it is the capacity of the British police to recognise its faults and to reconstitute social links in a permanent way which must be folio wed as a model example.

Urban Violence in France and in the United States of America : Suggested Responses. From now on it seems that urban public spaces are to be used by marginal groups in order to affirm their challenging of order and their absence of well-being. So-called ‘urban' problems are constructions aimed at simplifying the reading of complex and antagonistic realities, discourses emanating from destabilised institutions in a period of recomposition of State Systems and reproduced by the media. In France, as in the United States, the politicisation of the theme of security is a visible and unifying phenomenon, even if the forms of disorder are different. The responses adopted by the two countries are distinct but there remains a common preoccupation, which is to respond to the anxieties of the middle classes.

Canadian Experiences : the Peaceful Crisis. In Canada the administration of security is divided between the central powers and the provinces. In the past ten years or so the federal government has launched several police reforms. The principal axis of the reforms is to privilege prevention over repression, and to promote community policing. But, in practice, these reforms end up by marking a return to a policy of repression.

The Reform of the Police in Belgium : a Compromise with Eight Tentacles. Reflection upon reform of the police in Belgium began in the middle of the 1980s, following a large number of highly publicised ‘affairs'. The First stage of the reform process has been the demilitarisation of the police and the development of a strategy of inter-communal co-operation. This has been followed by more radical reform projects. A consensus among the different Belgian political forces has allowed an agreement to be found which constitutes one of the most important reforms ever known in Belgium.