The Protection Service () is a unit of the French National Police responsible for the protection of French and foreign dignitaries and the provision of technical security support. The SDLP also implements the necessary measures for the organization and security of official visits in France and abroad.

Organization

The service has 1,260 police officers and is headquartered on rue de Miromesnil in Paris near the Ministry of the Interior and the Palais de l'Élysée. The SDLP also has a permanent office in Strasbourg; home to several European institutions, including the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

. Its members are recruited from within the National Police, after two years minimum service in the National Police. The Service de Protection des Hautes Personnalités includes: * Headquarters * Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic (GSPR) tasked with protecting the

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the po ...

* Sub-directorate for personal protection (SDPP) tasked with protecting members of the government, civilians, foreign dignitaries, and includes the: ** Security Group of the Prime Minister (GSPM) ** Security Group of the Ministry of Interior (GSMI) * Sub-directorate for security (SDS) * Sub-directorate of resources and operational support (SDRMM) The SPHP was established in 1934 under the name of "Official Travel Service" ("Voyages officiels" (VO) in French) after the assassination of King

Alexander I of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karađorđević (, ; – 9 October 1934), also known as Alexander the Unifier ( / ), was King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 16 August 1921 to 3 October 1929 and King of Yugoslavia from 3 October 1929 until his assassinati ...

and

Louis Barthou Jean Louis Barthou (; 25 August 1862 – 9 October 1934) was a French politician of the French Third Republic, Third Republic who served as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913. In social policy, his time as prime minister saw the ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. It adopted its current name in 1994. The SPHP was headed by Inspector General Jean-Louis Fiamenghi, who assumed the post in November 2007. Inspector General Fiamenghi had been head of Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID), another unit within the National Police. In June 2010, a report by the

Cour des comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' (, "Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 ...

mentioned, among the persons enjoying SPHP protection, former prime ministers

Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Ministry ...

and

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005 under President Jacques Chirac. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Un ...

, the former ministers of the interior Pierre Joxe,

Jean-Pierre Chevènement Jean-Pierre Chevènement (; born 9 March 1939) ...

and Charles Pasqua, wives of former presidents Danielle Mitterrand and

Bernadette Chirac Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (; née Chodron de Courcel; born 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the widow of the former president Jacques Chirac. She and Chirac met as students at Sciences Po, and were married on 16 March 1956. They ...

, the former candidates for the 2007 presidential election

François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...

and

Ségolène Royal Ségolène Royal (; born Marie-Ségolène Royal; 22 September 1953) is a French politician who took part in the 2007 French presidential election, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. She was the first woman in France's history to r ...

, the former hostage and parliamentarian Ingrid Betancourt, the former minister

Michel Charasse Michel Charasse (8 July 1941 – 21 February 2020) was a member of the French Senate. He represented the Puy-de-Dôme department, and was a member of the Socialist Party. On 24 February 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nicol ...

, and the president of MEDEF Laurence Parisot. In 2013, as part of the reform of the central administration of the ministries of the Interior and Overseas, the service was renamed the "Service de la protection" (SDLP) and includes in its organization chart the "Security Service of the Ministry of the Interior" (SSMI) and the "Central Automobile Service" (SCA).

Equipment

In addition to an extensive fleet, SDLP members are armed with the following weapons: * Glock pistols * Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns * Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Service de la protection Protective security units National Police (France) 1934 establishments in France