The organization of French Civil Protection (from the Maire to the Ministry of interior)

Résumé du document

The civil security, which has for object the prevention of all kinds of risks as well as the protection of the persons, the goods and the environment against the accidents or natural disasters was at first the business of local authorities. Communities got organized and only the mutual aid allowed to fight against these risks. For a long time, the fight against fire was limited to the alarm bell which warned the inhabitants, so that they can come to give assistance to transport the water. Epidemic cases led to the quarantine of the city.

It is only further to the fire of the Austria embassy under Napoleon that a military unit was devoted in this mission of civil security, the Paris Fire Brigade. We attended to the same thing in Marseille, further to the fire of the New Galleries in front of the president of the council. There was a realization that the mission of civil security could be only a mission of public utility.

Since this time, the notion of civil protection considerably developed in France and the State elaborated importing devices to react in case of crisis. So how is organized the protection of the civil population in France ? In a first part, the means which France has to protect its inhabitants will be exposed and then a second part will explain how these means are coordinated.

Extraits

[...] This organization has to be known of the public, the media and the different participants in France and abroad. It will be the natural point of entrance to the device of crisis management for the European and international interlocutors in the highest level Extract from the white Book on the defense and the national security (p. 192) The political and strategic direction of the crisis rely on a crisis unit, equipped permanently in case of a crisis in the hotel Matignon. [...]

[...] So how is organized the protection of the civil population in France ? In a first part, the means which France has to protect its inhabitants will be exposed and then a second part will explain how these means are coordinated. The means set by France to assure the French Civil Protection. a. At the national level At the national level, the protection of the civil population is assured by the Direction of the Civil Security (DSC). Dependent on the Ministry of Interior, it is the competent central structure in management of minor or major risks. [...]

[...] They intervene on the whole French territory and contribute to the international actions of help. Based all over the territory, these services are composed by 307 mine-clearing experts helicopters aircrafts (based in Marignane) and military formations for the Civil Security (based in Nogent-le-Rotrou, Corte and Brignoles). Risk management : The DSC intervenes in three stages of risk management which are planning, operational reaction and finally returning to normal. It works with the prefects but also the State, the local authorities and private organizations in order to plan and practice exercices, to elaborate reaction or to get feedbacks. [...]

[...] As such, the direction of planning of national security (DPSN) manages the center of interministerial crisis management located place Beauvau. It assures the information, suggest a way to react and what means have to be used. The CIC is composed by three units : - CIC decision - CIC situation (Synthesis / Operations / Anticipation) CIC communication The operational centers depending on the Ministry of Interior The operational center of interministerial crisis management (COGIC) is a strategic tool intended to facilitate the exercise of public authorities. [...]

[...] COB is in charge of the police forces management as well as of the centralization, the analysis, the distribution and the synthesis of the information in the fiel of its competence. The center of information and operations of the national Gendarmerie (CROGEND) is an operational center activated permanently by the head office of the national Gendarmerie. It operates in particular in the missions of maintenance of law and order or civil defense. These three centers are in charge of the operationnal leading of the crisis all over the territory and they are in permanent communication with the local authorities through the prefects. [...]