Search and Intervention Brigade explained

Unit Name:Search and Intervention Brigade
Dates:1964 – present
Country: France
Agency:National Police
Type:Police tactical unit
Role:
Common Name:Anti-Gang Brigades
Abbreviation:BRI
Notable Commanders:Robert Broussard (Paris BRI)
Programmes:-->
Significant Operations:

A Search and Intervention Brigade (French: '''Brigade de recherche et d'intervention''' (BRI), Investigation and Intervention Brigade or Anti-Gang Brigade) is a unit of the French National Police.[1] The first units were formed in 1964 and carried out their tasks under the command of the Paris prefecture.[2]

BRIs are specialized in serious criminal cases such as armed robbery and kidnappings. They typically attempt to catch offenders in the act after monitoring their activities, a technique that was first experimented with in the 1960s by the then-new Paris BRI. They use a mix of traditional techniques and modern technology to collect and archive data about banditry. Although most of the pictures illustrating this article show uniformed officers (of the Paris BRI-PP) during a hostage-rescue public demonstration, most BRI missions are undertaken by plain clothed officers. There are now more than 15 BRI units, located in France's major cities. The first of them, the Paris BRI (or BRI-PP for Préfecture de Police), was created in 1964.

In 1972, in the wake of the Munich massacre, it was decided that BRI-PP would, as an additional task, form the nucleus of a police tactical task force known as Brigade Anticommando (Counter-commando Brigade) or BRI-BAC.[3] BRI-BAC, when activated, is reinforced by other specialised units of the Préfecture de police. It has been involved in the resolution of hostage crises from its beginnings in the early 1970s to the Porte de Vincennes siege in January 2015 and the "Bataclan" assault during the November 2015 Paris attacks. In the Porte de Vincennes case, BRI-BAC and the National Police's RAID operated together as part of the National Police Intervention Force (French: Force d'Intervention de la Police nationale or FIPN).[4]

History

The first BRI, BRI-PP was created in Paris in 1964. François le Mouël, a police commissary with the Paris Police Prefecture (PP), suggested that there were situations when, instead of waiting until a crime had been committed to start an inquiry, the police could achieve better results by keeping a close watch on known or suspected criminals and/or some of their potential targets. The criminals would then be arrested - either just before the crime took place or soon after but never during the action itself - so that there would be enough evidence for prosecution while avoiding the risks of shoot-outs and innocent victims. Initially set up as a new section in one of the PP's Directorate of Judiciary Police brigades, BRI became a separate brigade in 1967, still under le Mouël's leadership.

The Paris BRI method was innovative enough so that it was widely copied all around France and in other European countries. One of the better-known BRI successes was achieved in 1977 when the captors of banker Gérard Mallet, who had been under surveillance for more than four months,[5] were arrested less than four hours after they had committed their crime.

Missions

Organization

The BRIs are regular law enforcement units of the French National Police, which has jurisdiction over the whole French territory. The only exceptions are the Paris and Bouches-du-Rhône Prefectures of Police, which, because they are major cities and - in the case of Paris - the nation's capital, have autonomous police authority governing bodies directly subordinated to the French Minister of the Interior.

Unlike RAID which is a special response team directly subordinated to the Director general of the National police, BRIs are parts of the French criminal police. Their main mission is the arrest of violent criminals. As members of the judiciary police, BRI officers normally operate in plain clothes for most missions. Hoods are used to ensure anonymity during some of these missions.

Command and coordination between the Paris BRI-PP and RAID in response to acts of terror, is entrusted to a task force called National Police Intervention Force, headed by the RAID commander, and which is only activated if a major crisis occurs.[6]

As of 2018 there are the Paris BRI, two national and several regional BRI units, independent from one another:

BRI-PP commanders

In popular culture

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. The National Police is one of the two national police forces of France, together with the National Gendarmerie. They both come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior (Ministère de l'Intérieur)
  2. Aleksander Olech, French and Polish fight against terrorism, Poznan 2022, p. 99; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359135918_French_and_Polish_fight_against_terrorism
  3. The officiel spelling in French is "Brigade anticommando" although "Brigade anti-commando" is also used. But in practice, neither of the terms is frenquently used, the press usually referring to "the BRI", which can be confusing since there are several units sharing this name all around France.
  4. RAID also took part in the Bataclan assault but in a subordinate role as FIPN was not formally activated.
  5. Mémoires du commissaire Broussard (Commissary Broussard remembers). Robert Broussard. Nouveau Monde Editions, Paris - 2012
  6. As mentioned above, FIPN was formally activated during the "Porte de Vincennes" crisis but not during the Bataclan one. RAID participated on both actions but in a "leader" role for the first one and in a "follower" role in the second.

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