General Lieutenant of police force

The Office of general lieutenant of police force concentrated under the Ancien Mode the functions of police force and safety of the big cities.

The police force, defined by Joseph Guyot like “the order, the payment established in a city for all that looks at the safety and the convenience of the inhabitants”, also indicates “the jurisdiction established for the exercise of the Police force. ” This concept, which meets a sharp institutional and doctrinal success end of XVIIe in the middle of the 18th century, made to the object of the Traité police force , work fundamental of the police chief in Châtelet Nicolas Delamare. This author allots to the authorities responsible for the police force eleven fields of competence:

the religion
manners
health
provisioning and the vivres
the roadway system
peace and public safety
sciences and liberal arts
the trade
regulation concerning the servants, servants and skilful
manufactures and mechanical arts
and the management of poverty.

The quoted matters correspond to the concept of “administration”, developed in second half of the XVIIIe century.

The current field of the police force, which tends to be limited to the sedentary law and order, should not thus absolutely not be confused with the particularly broad field that one allots to him at the time.
It is however this concern of public safety, of introduction of a law and order, which starts the reform of the police force at the end of the XVIIe century in Paris then in the remainder of the kingdom.
When Louis XIV reaches the throne, the situation of its capital, the most populated city Europe, is truly catastrophic. Ten years after the Sling, the safety is not ensured and the streets, deprived of public lighting, constitute dens favourable with the deployment of criminal activities of any nature. Assassinations are made daily and it is not very sure to leave the evening without an armed escort. The city is full beggars who practice the flight, cause disorders and propagate epidemic diseases.

This irrefutable fact doubles failures on behalf of the Parisian authorities: many crimes are not continued by the royal agents which are devoted to their remunerative functions and justice is distributed between multiple hands.
It results from it a great inconsistency, heavily prejudicial with the administration of the city. A few years after its accession with the throne, once the order restored in finances of the kingdom, the king becomes aware of this situation and the need for deeply reforming the police force in its cities. Louis XIV, who wishes “the order in all matters”, is in particular persuaded of the importance of the police force of Paris for the safety of the kingdom, whereas the Parlement is powerful and the city able of the greatest tumults.
The king will try to cure these dangers by creating a rationalized and effective administration. This reform, supported by Colbert, is significant efforts of the royalty to make triumph the concept of State at the XVIIe century.

A new agent as solution with the Parisian disorder

Failures of rival administrations

Before 1667, the capital is not deprived of invested authorities of missions of police force, quite to the contrary. The provost and Viscount of Paris, royal agent, is in charge of the management of the capital. The essence of its functions passed between the hands of its lieutenants at the beginning of the 16th century: the civil lieutenant and the criminal lieutenant thus share justice and the police force of the city and delivers a savage competition. The stop of the Parlement of the March 12th 1630, if it slices the conflict with the profit of the civil lieutenant, does not make it possible however to clearly regulate respective attributions of the two agents as regards police force.

This situation is all the more confusing that other characters intervene with the title of the police force in Paris. Thus, the provost of the merchants, which belongs to the office of city, has scope extended out of financial and tax matter, of provisioning of the capital, management of the river, safety…

Lastly, of the agents such as the criminal lieutenant of short dress, the provost of the Island or the knight of the guet, intervenes subsidiarily in the police force of Paris. It results from the multitude of rival administrations a great confusion and an incapacity to solve the most serious difficulties which the management of a large city raises. The police force is generally regarded as an even free not very remunerative function. The officers, who bought their load, consequently prefer to devote themselves to more interesting activities financially. Also the police chiefs with the Châtelet neglected the police force with the profit of paying functions, such as the affixing or the lifting of seals, the liquidation of litigious accounts or the preparation of reports/ratios for the respondents in front of the civil lieutenant.

These failures of an administration frequently suspected of corruption by the inhabitants constitute a cause structural, major, need for reforming the police force in second half of the 17th century. This institutional confusion was combined with criminal excesses of the years 1660, factor starting of the “reformation” of March 1667.

A capital in prey with the insecurity

Whereas Paris is the most important city of Europe of many inhabitants, the situation is dramatic in term of public safety. Guy Shoe, senior of the Medical college and man of letters, denounces on September 26th 1644: “Day and night one flies and one kills here with the entour of Paris. It is said that they are soldiers of the regiment of the guards and musketeers. We arrived at the dregs of every century”. At the time of the great reign of Louis XIV, the divagation of soldiers is not the least factor of disorders. They place indeed at the inhabitant, in the absence of barracks.
Moreover, the criminals are legions: in second half of the 17th century, true criminal companies (which have their officers, their discipline, their secret language and their special code of the honor) extend their domination on whole districts of the capital to carry on there their hateful activities in a relative impunity. The insecurity becomes sometimes worrying extensive: for the only day of the June 6th 1644, one counts fourteen assassinations.

To tell the truth, the capital of the kingdom is sadly famous in all Europe for the dangerosity of its streets. The concern which results from it, felt in a permanent way, inflates so much so that it constitutes one of the immediate causes of the reform of the police force, following an outstanding episode. The popular emotion indeed reaches its roof when, the August 24th 1665, two robbers are introduced in full day into the private mansion of criminal lieutenant Jacques Tardieu and assassinate it, after having killed his wife of a blow of gun. The general indignation caused by the crime brings the king and his general inspector to cure the situation as fast as possible, not without to have beforehand carried out a true reflection on the police force of the capital.

“The police force demandoit a particular magistrate who could be present at all”: the creation of a new office dedicated to the police force

To solve the question of the disorder of the capital, the king sets up a council of reformation of the police force which is held of October 1666 at February 1667 at the chancellor Pierre Séguier. This council counts among its members the marshal of Villeroy, chief of the council of finance and thirteen advisers of State (of which Henri Pussort, uncle of Colbert). The work, undertaken under the aegis of Colbert, will lead to the royal edict of March 1667, creating the load of lieutenant of police force of the provost of Paris.

Little time before the council of reformation does not begin his work, civil lieutenant Dreux d' Aubray dies, the September 10th 1666, poisoned by his/her daughter. This death was going to make it possible to deeply modify the distribution of the police force of Paris by the dismantling of the load of the civil lieutenant and the amputation of many competences to the profit of the lieutenant of police force. Gabriel Nicolas of Reynie is thus named “lieutenant of the provost for the part of the police force” the March 3rd 1667 and compensates civil lieutenant Antoine d' Aubray (who had succeeded his father) with height for 250.000 books, for competences which were withdrawn with this last. The edict which determines the functions attached to the office lately created, relatively long and detailed, is recorded with the Parlement of Paris the March 15th 1667. It lays out in particular that “the functions of justice and the police force are often incompatible and of a too great extent to be exerted well by only one officer in Paris”, and shows the royal will thus clearly to distinguish the capacity to judge capacity to manage, thus breaking with the medieval uses.

“Under Louis XIV the things changed”: a legal organization converted with the service of the police force

A magistrate of Châtelet

Étymologiquement, the lieutenants “hold place” for the provost and fulfill his functions. This one gradually loses competences which he delegated to his subordinates, as of the end of the 13th century. The edict of March 1667 thus concerns initially a magistrate of the Châtelet. For this reason, the general lieutenant of police force chairs an audience of police force per week Châtelet, in order to slice the litigations concerned with his competence.

He has the capacity to deliver lettre de cachets and Guyot notes, as regards detention, that “when people are stopped for some light offense which does not deserve by an extraordinary instruction, and that the police chief however judges in connection with sending them in prison by form of correction, it is the general lieutenant of police force which decides time that their detention must last. ” The police chiefs report the noted infringments to him each week and it only rules with the audience of the room of police force. Are carried in front of him the litigations concerning the attacks with the privileges of the trade associations (exclusive exercise of the profession), just as the conflicts between the various trade associations in the exercise of their professions. Lastly, it confirms or disabled person the “opinions” given by the prosecutor of the king in Châtelet, on the bodies of the merchants, arts and trades, controls, receptions of the Masters…

As officer of the Châtelet, it is received in its load by the Parlement of Paris and must lend oath in front of him. It is subjected to its authority, as a magistrate and returns accounts to him. The Parliament quickly will claim to control it, with the need against the will for the king. The lieutenant lays out then, in agreement with the king, of the possibility of putting in failure the claims of the Parliament by obtaining government a stop of the council.

Broad responsibilities allocate for the police force of Paris

The police force is a concept under development full when new the Office is created. She is supported by the doctrines, which find a collaborator invaluable in the person of Nicolas Delamare. This last, police chief in Châtelet for the island of the City and author of the Treated Police force , are a collaborator and friendly close relation of Reynie. Making work of historian, expert and theorist, it defines the police force, in her most recent meaning, like the law and order of each city. This definition results from work of authors former who took part in the development of the concept, gradually putting it to the service royal capacity in order to strengthen the influence of monarchy on the cities.

The goal and the extent of the concept made it possible to the lieutenant of police force to exert competences in very varied fields, which it is advisable to indicate without claiming to exhaust them. Indeed, the lieutenant saw himself entrusting many additional functions by royal commissions, which led it to act in good beyond the forecasts of the edict of March 1667. According to the royal text, the police force “consists to ensure the rest of the public and the private individuals, to purge the town of what can cause disorders, and to get abundance, and to make live each one according to its condition and its duty”.

Is thus allotted to the lieutenant of police force “the safety of the city, prévôté and Viscount of Paris”. For this reason, it must control the wearing of weapons prohibited by the ordinances, to supervise the “illicit assemblies, tumults, seditions and disorders”, “furnished hotel trades, inns, houses, badly famed brelans, tobaccos & places” (vice squad), to give orders in the event of fire or of flood. Judge, it can rule only and summarily on the red-handeds and enter in the process of judgment - except for the afflictive sorrows. It also controls the printing works of the “books and make out defended. ” Beyond these missions relating to peace and public safety, the lieutenant intervenes in the economy of the city, the transport and the storage of the vivres and the hay, the fixing of the price of the food products (police force of the provisioning and the trade). He also sees himself entrusting the management of the Halles, Foire S and Marché S, and particularly of the Boucherie S. He can make calibrate the weights and balances, “except for all other judges. ” He regulates the Corporation S, in particular as for the certificates of apprenticeship and reception of the Masters and ensures the respect of their statutes and payments (police force of arts and trades). The surgeons must declare to him the names and qualities of all the casualties who are the subject of their care (police force of health but also of public safety, the lieutenant thus taking note of many crimes and offenses against the people).

More generally, it is charged to continue all the infringments with the ordinances, statutes and payments. These broad competences correspond to the fields of the police force such as it is defined by Delamare, in the definition quoted in introduction. The police force, which seems from now on autonomous of justice, is not regarded any more as a simple appendix of the latter. The lieutenant of police force is of this fact clearly distinguished from the civil lieutenant, responsible for “distributive and contentious” justice: the first fact appears of true administrator, while the second sees himself devoted in his functions of dispenser of justice. This clarification between their respective roles lets however remain a certain confusion between justice and administration on certain assumptions with the advantage of the lieutenant of police force, charged as we saw to judge the infringments with the regulation. It should finally be noted that the lieutenant of police force must yield the step to the civil lieutenant, this last being with the head of the Châtelet . It is however the lieutenant of police force which will collect the greatest number of the agents of the large Parisian court.

The reorganization of the body of the police chiefs in Châtelet

The edict of 1667 gives to the lieutenant of police force the means of restoring the order: “the police chiefs with the châtelet, ushers will be held and sergens, to carry out orders and mandemens”, and “even the knight of the guet, criminal lieutenant of short dress and provost of Isle, like also the middle-class men held to lend hand-strong to the execution his orders and mandemens, all times and quantes they will be necessary”. By these provisions, the royal text subordinates to the lieutenant the majority of the authorities previously invested of missions of police force in Paris.

If the last quoted institutions tend to decline as of this time, it is differently body of the investigating police chiefs and inspectors, destined for Paris “police chiefs with the Châtelet”. These agents are “officers of evening gown established to make certain instructions and functions of justice and police force, with the discharge of the magistrates”, attaches with the lieutenants of the provost of Paris. Their number varied considerably: it passed from eight pennies Philippe V to forty-eight under Louis XIII. The edict of March 1667 made of these agents of subordinated of the lieutenant of police force, and alone four of them remain attached to the civil lieutenant.

The functions of police force were not very remunerative and the police chiefs passed to the service of the lieutenant of police force were some financially underprivileged. To remunerate its police chiefs suitably, Reynie obtained from the king of the letters patent in June 1668, which allocated privileges to them as well as the title of advising of the king. They are consequently seen pouring a pension, to which gratifications for those were added which would be distinguished in the exercise from their load (what one would describe today as annual treatment, together with premiums with the merit).

The police chiefs were divided in the capital: with the head of each of the sixteen districts of the city, one finds a “former employee”, police chief appointed by his seniority. The other police chiefs of the district are placed under its orders. They are assisted clerks, and are seen allotting by old particular service. They must daily announce to him any notable fact which has occurred in their service and are assembled at his place each week to submit the report/ratio of their activities. Every two weeks, they must proceed to a meticulous visit of their district.

Thus a true bureaucracy, centralized in Châtelet is set up where seat, under the presidency of the lieutenant, the jurisdiction of police force. It will be assisted as of 1709 “police inspectors”. They fulfill as well the functions of policemen as examining magistrates, in particular preparing the businesses subjected to the judgment of the lieutenant. They make it possible this last to be affirmed like a large administrator, representative of the royalty in Paris.

Large representing of the king in Paris

An intendant given to the capital and its suburbs

“In Paris, the functions normally reserved for the intendant are exerted in Paris by the lieutenant of police force. ” Indeed, if the royalty gave an intendant to the Généralité of Paris, it prohibited to him to intervene in the capital and he does not have any capacity in the city. Guyot notes that the lieutenant of police force, “for the Capitation and the other impositions of the bodies of arts and trades, made in this part, as in good of others, the functions of intendant for the town of Paris. ” Without bearing the name of it, like the intendant in province, he is indeed the large royal administrator delegated by the king at the local level. The political specificity of any capital and the importance of the Paris and its suburbs undoubtedly explain the royal will to make a fate particular to the management of the “Bonne city” of Paris. Representative of the king in Paris, the general lieutenant of police force largely exerts the kingly functions: he governs the department of the lettre de cachets, the military general inspection, the police force of the prisons of State and can intervene itself, in the name of the king, in all the situations where its intervention appears necessary and urgent.

The first holder of this important load, the lieutenant of police force Gabriel Nicolas of Reynie, only old of forty and one years when it reaches the load created in 1667, is resulting from a family having occupied of the important loads in the royal administration, as well as regards police force as of justice. He belongs to the upper middle class of dress and exerted the load of Master of the requests before obtaining lieutenancy. This last point reinforces the assertion according to which the lieutenant of police force acts as intendant in Paris: the intendants sent in province are indeed generally of former Masters of the requests. The successors of Reynie will have a similar formation. Exerting its load thirty years lasting, of March 1667 at January 1697, it is replaced by Marc Rene de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d' Argenson.

The prestige of the first holders of the load and the development of competences of the lieutenant explain the persistence of the institution, which plays a fundamental role in Paris until the French revolution. The great success of this institution also explains that it is the precursor of the Prefect of police, dominating civil servant in Paris since the 19th century.

The statute of the new royal agent

Delegated to Paris to exert permanent functions there, the general lieutenant of police force is frequently described as “officer” in the texts and in the authors of the 18th century. In his thesis of letters, Mr. Chassaigne supports that he is actually a police chief. He exposes thus that, contrary to the officers, the general lieutenants of police force do not have any statutory guarantee, exists only by the only royal will, is discretionarily named and revoked and sees their capacities limited by their commission.

The edict of March 1667 holds for the royalty “the free one and whole provision of the aforesaid loads civil lieutenant and of lieutenant of police force, to lay out of it all times and quantes which will seem to us, while refunding with those which will be equipped with icelles the sums agreed upon for reason with this, according to their assent Ci-attache”. These provisions correspond to the statute of the officers, who had their load except refunding by the king of the sums paid for the acquisition of the office. As a lieutenant of the provost, there is not any doubt besides that he is a royal officer. The permanence of its functions goes besides in this direction.

However, qualities of officer and police chief tend to merge on its head. Indeed, he sees himself entrusting many temporary and specific missions by letters of commission, which widen its sphere of activity considerably.

Quasi governmental character of the functions of the lieutenant of police force

The sovereign, who intends to direct Paris directly, with this intention avoids passing by intermediaries. The capital concerned with the Secretary of State at the House of the King, the general lieutenant is in theory a subordinate of the Secretary of State, which one then calls frequently “minister of Paris”. Actually, the king works regularly and directly with Reynie, like it does it with his ministers. Time will see this practice devoted and developed by its successors.

Saint-Simon, at the 18th century, notices thus that the general lieutenant of police force knew to make his load “a kind of extremely important ministry by the direct confidence of the king, the continual relations with the Court and the number of things with which it mixed. ” It is sometimes called itself “minister of Paris”, and J. - L. Harouel describes it as “quasi-minister”, in the same manner as the managing director of the Building industries of the king. On its side, B. Goatee speaks about “vice-minister”, recalling that it had a work with the king and directed an administration whose manpower were more numerous than those of secretariats of State such as that of the House of the king (on which it however depends) or of the Foreign affairs. These names, if they must be moderate by the fact that the general lieutenant is not formally a minister (he is not member of the Council of in Top), stress nevertheless the importance of the function and its role in the government policy.

Conclusion: The prompt success of the institution to Paris and its geographical extension

The institution meets a sharp success as of its creation and restores for a time the safety and the confidence of the inhabitants. Reynie is thus considered to have made dismantle the Court of the Miracles, imposed the lighting of the streets and developed a guard of night. One also allots to him the resolution of the “Business of the poisons”, that one even which cost the life to civil lieutenant Dreux d' Aubray. These undeniable successes however will be moderated by an increase in criminality at the end of the century, that Reynie puts on the account of the insufficiency of its agents, but which seems as much due to a bending of its vigilance. In 1697, whereas it sick and is weakened and was constrained to slow down its activity, it is replaced at the time of a difficulty with the Parliament by Marc Rene de Voyer de Paulmy, according to the wishes of the Pontchartrain chancellor. As from this date, the lieutenancy of police force will take a more political turn and Louis XV will use largely of his successive lieutenants to control the opinions in his capital. Lieutenancy does not remain about it less the dominating administrative body of the capital. Satisfied with the operation of the new office, and eager to undoubtedly create new loads for financial reasons, Louis XIV extended this system to the big cities of province by the edict of October 1699. Lieutenancies of police force were generally bought by the municipalities which consolidated the functions thus that they exerted already on the matter. This organization of France in municipal police will persist until their late nationalization, in 1941, and undoubtedly explains the importance of the police headquarter of Paris, at least until the emancipation of the Parisian municipality.

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