History UsefulNotes / LesCopsSportif

** While the aforementioned GIGN is part of the Army, the police have their own {{SWAT Team}}s: the RAID (''Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion'', Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence) and the BRI (''Brigade Recherche Intervention'', Research Intervention Brigade) has teams in every large city.

** While the aforementioned GIGN is part of the Army, the police have their own {{SWAT Team}}s: the RAID (''Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion'', Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence) has teams in every large city.

French Policemen, like their equivalents all over the world, have many nicknames : ''flics''[[note]]From a Yiddish word meaning ''flies''.[[/note]], ''keufs'' [[note]]Short for "keuflis" (which almost no one ever uses) which is "flics" backwards [[/note]], ''poulets''[[note]]Meaning ''chickens'' and coming from the fact the Paris Central Police Station was built on a former bird market in 1872. However, ''poulet'' is NOT slang for ''coward'', unlike the English ''chicken'', so this interpretation is erroneous.[[/note]], ''maison poulaga''[[note]]related to ''poulets'', means roughly ''henhouse'' in French[[/note]] or ''maréchaussée''[[note]]Mostly used in the countryside, refering to the police force that became the Gendarmes.[[/note]].

French Policemen, like their equivalents all over the world, have many nicknames : ''flics''[[note]]From a Yiddish word meanind ''flies''.[[/note]], ''keufs'' [[note]]Short for "keuflis" (which almost no one ever uses) which is "flics" backwards [[/note]], ''poulets''[[note]]Meaning ''chickens'' and coming from the fact the Paris Central Police Station was built on a former bird market in 1872. However, ''poulet'' is NOT slang for ''coward'', unlike the English ''chicken'', so this interpretation is erroneous.[[/note]], ''maison poulaga''[[note]]related to ''poulets'', means roughly ''henhouse'' in French[[/note]] or ''maréchaussée''[[note]]Mostly used in the countryside, refering to the police force that became the Gendarmes.[[/note]].

* ''Bob Le Flambeur'', a [[TheCaper Caper]] movie about robbing a Casino, has an InspectorJavert type pursuing the title character. In the end, [[spoiler: Bob gets away clean because he never actually committed the heist, instead hitting a lucky streak at the gaming tables that made him more than he would have if he'd played his part. His partners, unfortunately, don't know this and get gunned down pointlessly.]]

* ''Engrenages'' (''Spiral'' in the UK, the French title meaning "cogs"), a French series which has aired in the United Kingdom.

* ''{{Film/Taxi}}''

** While the aforementioned GIGN is part of the Army, the police have their own {{SWAT Team}}s: the GIPN (''Groupe d'Intervention de la Police Nationale'', National Police Intervention Group) has teams in every large city. When things go [[OhCrap really south]] (for example, the Neuilly hostage situation of 1993, where a man known as "Human Bomb" took a whole preschool class hostage), the police resort to the UpToEleven version of the GIPN, the RAID (''Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion'', Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence).

* ''[[VideoGame/{{RainbowSix}} Rainbow Six: Siege]]'' has 4 playable GIGN characters.

* ''Literature/TheCrimsonRivers'' (''Les rivières pourpres'' in the original French) is a novel and film featuring a team-up between a gendarme and detective from the National Police.

->''Nobody is not afraid of a policeman from France. That is why this hat is so effective.''
-->-- '''Description of [[NiceHat L'Inspecteur]], VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''

* Appear in many of the [[CrimeFiction crime novels]] of Creator/PaulFeval (who wrote from 1842 to 1875) including ''Literature/TheVampireCountess'', ''Literature/JohnDevil'' and ''Literature/TheBlackCoats'' series. He had a very cynical attitude so their usually PoliceAreUseless

* ''ThePinkPanther'' and other films featuring Inspector Clouseau.

* National Gendarmerie (''Gendarmerie Nationale''): A part of the GaulsWithGrenades, this military police force essentially covers the French countryside and small towns. They wear [[NiceHat kepis]]. The riot control role is shared by the Gendarmerie Mobile units, which, as their name implies, are part of the Gendarmerie. While in the United Kingdom, the United States and most other ex-British colonies, the idea of using military police to enforce civilian law would seem odd at best and tyrannical at worst outside of extreme emergencies, in France the concept of the Gendarmerie has a long history and nobody really thinks twice about it. France is however one of the few nations to still have a police force named "Gendarmerie" that actually ''is'' a gendarmerie; in various nations that picked up the concept from France when it was a colonial power, the gendarmerie was eventually merged into the civilian police but kept its name as a matter of tradition.

* Appear in many of the CrimeNovels of Creator/PaulFeval (who wrote form 1842 to 1875) including ''Literature/TheVampireCountess'', ''Literature/JohnDevil'' and ''Literature/TheBlackCoats'' series. He had a very cynical attitude so their usually PoliceAreUseless

[[quoteright:348:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11684-Photo_de_groupe_du_porte-parolat_500_4474.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[CatchPhrase "Vos papiers s'il vous plaît."]] Left: Customs member, Center: policeman, Right: gendarme.]]

* The final level of ''[[VideoGame/{{Hitman}} Hitman Contracts]]'' requires Agent 47 to escape a GIGN assault on his hotel chamber.

* ''ModernWarfare 3'' has the GIGN as allies in the campaign and as a playable faction in the multiplayer.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Driver}} Driv3r]]'' features the National Police in Nice. The Gendarmerie also appear in the mission '18-Wheeler'.

* ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]''

* ''{{Banlieue 13}}''.

French Policemen, like their equivalents all over the world, have many nicknames : ''flics''[[note]]From a Yiddish word meanind ''flies''.[[/note]], ''keufs'' [[note]]Supposedly ''flics'' said backwards.[[/note]], ''poulets''[[note]]Meaning ''chickens'' and coming from the fact the Paris Central Police Station was built on a former bird market in 1872. However, ''poulet'' is NOT slang for ''coward'', unlike the English ''chicken'', so this interpretation is erroneous.[[/note]], ''maison poulaga''[[note]]related to ''poulets'', means roughly ''henhouse'' in French[[/note]] or ''maréchaussée''[[note]]Mostly used in the countryside, refering to the police force that became the Gendarmes.[[/note]].

* National Gendarmerie (''Gendarmerie Nationale''): A part of the GaulsWithGrenades, this military police force essentially covers the French countryside and small towns. They wear [[NiceHat kepis]]. The riot control role is shared by the Gendarmerie Mobile units, which, as their name implies, are part of the Gendarmerie. While in the United Kingdom, the United States and most other ex-British colonies, the idea of using military police to enforce civilian law would seem odd at best and tyrannical at worst outside of extreme emergencies, in France the concept of the Gendarmerie has a long history and nobody really thinks twice about it.

* National Gendarmerie (''Gendarmerie Nationale''): A part of the GaulsWithGrenades, this military police force essentially covers the French countryside and small towns. They wear [[NiceHat kepis]]. The riot control role is shared by the Gendarmerie Mobile units, which, as their name implies, are part of the Gendarmerie.

--> '''Description of [[NiceHat L'Inspecteur]], VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''

* Members of the Maritime Gendarmerie feature prominently in the YoungBond short story "A Hard Man to Kill".