ABSTRACT
In France, the centralisation of public security started being challenged by policy-makers toward the late 1970s, but changes really commenced in the 1980s, following in particular the 1983 Bonnemaison report. The main dynamics of the process can be described as follows: the rallying of local and regional governments around security issues; the design and release of contractual tools enabling the State and local governments to handle security and prevention matters collaboratively; the rise of private security forces; the interlacing of prevention and repression issues. This chapter intends to explore these dynamics by questioning the underlying logic of how municipalities mobilise their resources and the nature of their exchanges with local representatives of central government agencies. It explores decentralisation of metropolitan policing through reference to four case studies: Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and Toulouse. Toulouse and Strasbourg have been marked by political changes over the last 15 years and raise the question of policy continuity despite political changes.
