he gave his name to the inventors’ competition, but who was Louis Lépine?

His name has passed into posterity with the famous inventors’ competition, the new edition of which begins this Wednesday, May 1 at the Paris Fair. Many streets are also dedicated to him in France and a square in Paris, in front of the Police headquarters. And for good reason, Louis Lépine revolutionized the functioning of the institution and even created the Police Prefecture Museum. Interview with its manager, Anaïs Eveno.

Can we say that Louis Lépine is the inventor of the modern police force?

Yes, he is one of the founders of the modern police force. In fact, he became Police Prefect at the end of the 19th^th century and will remain in office for a very long time: a first time from 1893 to 1897 and then a second time from 1899 to 1913. He has time to put many things in place and to draw inspiration from foreign countries to modernize the management of the crime and improve the daily lives of citizens in Paris. The end of the 19th century was a period marked by a lot of political instability, by the emergence of a new crime with gangs of young criminals called the Apaches. They are rampant in the streets of Paris causing insecurity. There are also all the anarchist attacks between 1892 and 1894 which resulted in the assassination of Sadi Carnot in 1894 (President of the Republic assassinated in Lyon by the Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio). So Lépine has quite a bit of work! He will create three emblematic brigades which still exist and which support the missions of the Police Prefecture today: the river brigade on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition of 1900, the bicycle brigade in 1901 to secure the streets. The criminals had understood the patrol system of the police officers who were on foot. Providing police officers with bicycles made it possible to break this routine and be able to move more quickly as needed. Finally in 1908, still to secure the streets, he founded the dog brigade with dogs who could also rescue people who fell into the Seine.

Louis Lépine is one of the founders of the modern police force

Anaïs Eveno, head of the Police Prefecture museum

It also changed the daily lives of Parisians ?

Yes because it is a period which is marked by the increase in the population and by the increasing flow of automobiles. The railway network is also increasing, new technologies appear such as cinema and therefore lamps which increase the risk of fire… Louis Lépine will first secure the streets and traffic flows by putting in place a certain number of traffic rules which did not exist before. He will be inspired by the American Phelps Eno who created a street code in New York in 1903. In 1910 Louis Lépine did the same thing in Paris: it was the appearance of one-way streets, the first roundabouts with the Place de l’Etoile, pedestrian crossings which would be materialized by signs or by police officers. traffic that are there to help you get through. He will also create the famous white stick in 1896 which is sometimes compared to a baton but not at all! It was supposed to materialize the gestures of traffic police to help motorists see them better.

It is he who is also at the origin of the Lépine competition ?

At the beginning of the 20^th century of shopkeepers suffering from competition from street vendors. Rather than multiplying the rounds of police officers and arrests, he created this famous competition-exhibition of toys and inventions in 1901. The winners won a free patent, protection against plagiarism. He wanted to protect the know-how of manufacturers.

Why did he want to create the Police Prefecture museum?

He created the museum in 1909. It was originally located at 36 quai des Orfèvres and has now been installed since 1975 at the police station of the 5th and 6th arrondissement. Initially, its ambition was to bring the police closer to the population and to make the history of the Parisian police known to all citizens, to show the missions of the PP and to convey the message that police officers are there to supervise and secure citizens above all. Moreover, this is the goal that we always have at the museum, it is always to describe and explain to the public all the variety of missions of the police headquarters and services.

There is also an impressive collection of weapons which is presented with knives, razors, brass knuckles or even sheep bones cut into blades used by the famous Apaches. What did Lépine recommend?

You have to remember that at that time the police were not armed or equipped with cars. She moved on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle and only had batons as weapons. The police do not have guns. Following the Bonnot gang affair, the general security and the police headquarters in 1911. The Bonnot gang were the first bandits to carry out violent armed car robberies, they really had no scruples. They claim to be anarchists, they hold up and do not hesitate to shoot the police and the bank agents. They operate quite heavily throughout France, are very mobile with these new cars and escape the police. So Lépine (with Célestin Hennion) will realize that it is absolutely necessary to provide the police with new means so that they can deal with this new crime. In 1911 Louis Lépine had the police headquarters armed with Browning 1900s, the famous weapon that Jules Bonnot had.

What is the interest of the Police Prefecture museum today? ?

Firstly because it’s free! We present all the missions of the PP and it is very interesting because the police is not just about maintaining order and managing state security. It is the supervision of all our daily lives, from the request for identity papers to the hygiene of restaurants! This allows the museum to present as much of the history of the Parisian police from the 17th century to the present day because it was in the 17th century that the office of Lieutenant General of Police, therefore the ancestor of the Prefect of Police, was created. We also highlight the uniforms and equipment that have evolved depending on crime. And then it’s the opportunity to discover all the important brigades: river, the judicial police, criminal, narcotics, the repression of pimping. There is also a whole room devoted to technical and scientific police. It is quite a remarkable story to see all the developments that have taken place in a century, since Bertillon at the end of the 19th century who created the famous anthropometric method based on the recognition of individuals by measurements of the human body (and then elsewhere supported by Louis Lépine in 1893 who created the judicial identity service at the PP) and until today with DNA and fingerprints.

The voice of Louis Lépine can be discovered on the Bibliothèque Nationale de France website.