Traffic law enforcement in built-up areas : what do we learn from offences reported by the police ?

It is primarily the practices of integrating traffic control into the urban space (sections of through roads, urban road network) and its traffic (through traffic, urban traffic and time traffic) that differentiate the styles of police management of urban traffic law enforcement. The control in built-up areas of inter-urban roads and flows is that which applies in the main to safety regulations which are not specific to city traffic and driving (Gendarmerie): the urban enforcement is managed as the general road safety controls and little integrated into the intra-urban traffic system. Controls practised on intra-urban roads and flows mainly concern traffic and driving regulations specific to driving in built-up areas (Police): the law enforcement is well integrated into the urban space-and-traffic system. These two control strategies in fact correspond to the differences between public spaces controlled by the Gendarmerie and the Police, the scales of each road network under supervision being completely different in terms of size and composition, (canton or Departement vs town): one is defined above all by an inter-urban road network including several types of built-up area and requiring inter-urban mobility of the police force concerned (Gendarmerie), while the other is limited to the single type of urban road-and-traffic network and involves only one built-up area for carrying out control activity (Police). The juxtaposition of those two sorts of urban control configuration explains the two institutional types of implementation of urban law enforcement (macro-strategy vs micro-strategy). This differentiation marks the influence of the general framework of police work (territories and missions) on the way in which each institutional actor type assumes his law enforcement role (macro-logic vs micro-logic). On the other hand, the interaction between law enforcement practices and police activity management is particularly highlighted by the time strategies which are mainly ruled by each particular police institution organisation. (A)