ABSTRACT
Historians have tended to explain the gradual demilitarisation of protest policing during the Wilhelmine era in terms of this political rationale. Confronted with this dilemma, the French Interior Ministry gave priority to the safe – although politically controversial – solution of involving the army in the policing of any situation with some potential for violence and disorder. In France the ministerial plans for large-scale protest policing involved the army from the outset. As the plans and strategies for large-scale policing operations became entrenched in the bureaucratic practice in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the French authorities became increasingly likely to call for military assistance. The way in which troops were used in Nord-Pas-de-Calalis as well as the strategies developed in the ministerial Plans for Protections carefully followed Police Prefect Lepine's principles for large-scale protest policing. It was the increasing concerns for public opinion that pushed French authorities to change their strategic approach to policing.
