The Colonial Legacy of French Policing

This chapter focuses on a double riddle: the unique historical trajectory leading to a “French style of policing” characterized by its aggressive style in racialized communities, and the extreme circumspection of French policing studies when it comes to integrating post-colonial analyses and the colonial past into their analytical frameworks. The first to bring to the foreground the excesses of the colonial legacy were activists. This may explain why studies framed in terms of “internal colonialism,” as well as those highlighting continuities with policing practices shaped in colonial situations, were undervalued. Domestic French policing was more directly impacted by its imperial legacy than was the case in Britain. The Algerian War (1954–1962) in particular considerably affected police–public relationships, leading to organizational, institutional, and practical innovations (an emphasis on “anti-crime” interventions; heavy reliance on stop-and-search; a tendency toward militarization) whose contemporary traces appear significant when it comes to comparing France to other European policing institutions.