Third Force
| Author | Charles Nelson |
| Published date | 01 April 1980 |
| Date | 01 April 1980 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X8005300206 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CHARLES
NELSON
Thames Valley Police
THIRD
FORCE
An International Police
Association Scholarship Report
INTRODUCTION
In Europe certain police services encompass what may be termed a
third force.
It
is not committed to performing duties with the body of
the service. Neither does it fall within militaryjurisdiction.
The
third
force is a mobile police reserve. In England
and
Wales Special Patrol
Groups
and
Support
Groups
have been formed as reserves within
individual forces.
The
mutual aid provided by Police
Support
Units
draws its manpower from established strengths thus removing men
from their everyday duties. In the absence of
any
such reserve in the
United Kingdom, a
comparison
has been made of the French
and
German
formations, the "Compagnies Republicaines de Securite''
and
the "Bereitschaftspolizei" respectively, henceforth referred to as
the
"CR.S."
and
the
"Beho"
as they are more usually known. This
comparison is not intended as
any
measure of their effectiveness
because they
are
both
highly trained, well equipped, efficient bodies
of men.
The
contrast
rather
illustrates two solutions to a
common
problem each influenced by the individual nation's political
organization
and
the differing responsibilities of its law enforcement
agencies.
BACKGROUND
France has a national organization for each of its Police Services
with a headquarters based in Paris.
The
Gendarmerie is
part
of the
army
and
thus the responsibility of
that
minister.
The
Minister of the
Interior controls the Police with separate
departments
for each
part
of the Service. In this way fields of operation are co-ordinated. In
addition to
the'
CR.S.
there
are
the
P.A.F.
(Airport
and
Frontier
Police), the P. U. (Town Police), the Surete Nationale (C.I.D.) as well
as several others. Paris has its own Metropolitan Police.
The
policemen themselves
can
be placed into two categories; agent
and
officier de Police judiciare
(A.P.J.IO.P.J.).
This is
not
a
rank
but
determines the
authority
of the policeman to carry
out
acriminal
investigation. Only an
O.P.J.
maydo
this
and
these are mainly found
Police Journal
April
1980 /38
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