The British Gendarmerie-Policia-Carabinieri-Police

In Britain we have had just one spanner in the Policing toolbox, but we are changing and are introducing a new tool in the shape of PCSOs. We have our various specialist departments, CID, Road Traffic etc etc etc. The PCSO roll out continues. We have our National Serious crime network but by and large we have traditionally kept it all under one roof, the good old fashioned British bobby was the Swiss Army knife of the Policing multi-tool world and excelled at a wide range of things as age and experience increased. This is deemed to be old fashioned, outdated and far too expensive to justify continued financing in this modern day & age. So expect our provision to change to the PCSOs providing the municipal service offering similar to Spain but without the guns and the remainder of those who are deemed to be financially unsustainable, according to Sir Ronnie Flanagan, to become the National squads based locally in a revamped Force reorganisation of serious crime investigation, firearms officers, drugs enforcement and a whole list of specialist countrywide based squads that deal with their own remits and specialisations. Hopefully the dog handlers will still be included. Our Policing traditions are not changing, they are being removed, slowly but surely, by people who claim to know better but who really should know better. We are following the styles preferred by others because it-is a far cheaper alternative. I feel sure that the bean counters have got the business plan and all relevant projections and forecasts for this safely stored away from prying eyes somewhere. This should give the chance to get back some of that Northern Rock money to put into the pool for the Public Service Group wages fiasco for the next year or so. What was that I heard about being resistant to change ?There are three police organisations that generally operate in Spain. They are all armed:

The Guardia Civil (Civil Guard)

These are recognised by their green uniforms and are responsible for national security, customs and crowd control. You will usually see them on the motorway in either cars or on motorbikes as they do speed checks.

The National Police (La Policia) They wear either a black uniform and a white shirt or a blue military style uniform. Their duties include guarding public buildings, the Royal Family and Government figures. If you are a victim of street crime these are the police that will deal with your case.

The Municipal Police

They wear blue and white uniforms. They are responsible to the mayor and town hall in each municipality, and their duties include controlling local traffic and parking violations.

In France there are two levels of  Policing. 

The National Police (Police Nationale), formerly the SûretéNationale, is one of two National Police forces and the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns.

The other main agency is the military Gendarmerie, with primary jurisdiction in smaller towns and rural and border areas.

The Gendarmerie Nationale is divided into the gendarmerie départementale and the gendarmerie mobile. The National Gendarmerie consisted of 103,866 personnel in 2005.

The Departmentale units are split the French admininstrative Departments, as the name suggests.  The mobile, well they wear black and you might have seen them on the news, the ones with CRS on the uniforms. This is French for kicking ass.

The National Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior and has about 150,000 employees.

The National Police operate mostly in large cities and towns. In that context:

• it conducts security operations (patrols, traffic control, identity checks…)
• under the orders and supervision of the Investigating Magistrates of the judiciary, it conducts criminal enquiries, serves search warrants, etc.; it maintains specific services (“judicial police”) for criminal enquiries.

 In Italy, Italian public security is provided by five separate Police Forces:

1. Arma dei Carabinieri, Military police.
2. Guardia di Finanza, financial and customs police, also organized as a military force.
3. Polizia di Stato, state police. A civil Police Force.
4. Polizia Penitenziaria, penitentiary police.
5. and Corpo Forestale dello Stato, forestry police.