Central Directorate of the Judicial Police

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Logo of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police Logo DCPJ.svg
Logo of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police

The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (French : Direction centrale de la police judiciaire; DCPJ) is a directorate of the National Police of France whose national and territorial responsibility is investigating and fighting serious crime. It was established in 1907 and later reorganized under an ordinance issued on 5 August 2009. [1]

Contents

Mission and responsibilities

The judicial police in France are responsible for fighting serious crime crime across the entire country. [2] [3] To oversee their operations, the Central Directorate was created in 1966 to oversee it. [4] It manages central services with national authority, such asOCTRIS, OCLCO and SDAT. It also supervises regional directorates.

The Directorate is focused on the investigation of organized crime, terrorism, cybercrime, and other serious and complex forms of criminal behaviour in France. [5]

Its responsibilities and focus evolved over time. In 2009, the following were directly mentioned:

Organisation

The DCPJ is itself divided into sub-directorates:

A major part of the Police judiciaire (PJ) in France is actually composed by territorial services (DIPJ/DRPJ). [6]

According to a report from the French Senate, as of July 2022, the DCPJ employed 5,673 personnel, including approximately 3,800 investigators. [7]

History

The first national judicial police was created in 1907 by Georges Clemenceau acting as Minister of the Interior, and Célestin Hennion. Before that, the police were local forces, and had trouble coping with new large gangs acting on broader areas, using cars and railways to move (while police had bicycles or horses). The 12 Brigades régionales de police mobile(Regional Brigades of Mobile Police), based in major cities with large jurisdictions had a total of 500 officers. They were well-trained, operated 24/7 surveillance of suspects, used the Bertillon system, had telephones and quickly got cars. The brigades achieved notable results, including the arrest of the infamous Bonnot Gang. As Georges Clemenceau was nicknamed "Le Tigre" (tiger), the units became known as Brigades du Tigre(Tiger Squad) and were later featured in Les Brigades du Tigre. Nowadays the logo of the DCPJ figures a tiger and the silhouette of Clemenceau.

See also

References

  1. Aleksander Olech, French and Polish fight against terrorism, Poznan, 2022, p. 90
  2. John Bell; Sophie Boyron; Simon Whittaker (27 March 2008). Principles of French Law (2 ed.). OUP Oxford. pp. 129–. ISBN   978-0-19-101889-3. OCLC   865331945.
  3. Donnelly, Daniel (21 January 2013). Municipal Policing in the European Union: Comparative Perspectives. Springer. p. 37. ISBN   978-1-137-29061-8. OCLC   1005811336.
  4. Histoire de la police judiciaire Police Nationale. 10 October 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2022 (in French)
  5. Cornevin, Christophe (10 October 2022). "Qu'est-ce que la police judiciaire et quelles sont ses missions ?" [What is the judicial police and what are its missions?]. Le Figaro . Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  6. "La direction nationale de la police judiciaire (DNPJ) | police nationale". www.police-nationale.interieur.gouv.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 20 June 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  7. "La direction centrale de la police judiciaire : des brigades du Tigre bientôt mises en cage ?". Sénat (in French). 7 April 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2025.