Louis Lépine
Encyclopedia
Louis Jean-Baptiste Lépine was an eminent lawyer, politician and inventor who was Prefect of Police (Préfet de Police) for Paris from 1893 to 1897 and again from 1899 to 1913. He earned the nickname of ‘’The Little Man with the Big Stick’’ for his skill in handling large Parisian crowds. He was responsible for the modernisation of the French Police Force. Under Lépine the study of forensic science as a tool of detection became standard practise.
in the Alsace region his unit was besieged and continually attacked by the Prussians only surrendering after the hostilities had ceased. Lépine was awarded the Médaille militaire
for his bravery . He then embarked on a career as a lawyer and public administrator, a successful career that took in provincial postings that included deputy prefect of Lapalisse, Montbrison. Langres and Fontainebleau and then service as prefect of the Indres, the Loire and Seine-et-Oise.,
to quell serious student riots in 1893 resulted in Lépine’s appointment. The riots that had taken place arose out of a trivial incident involving the arrest of an actress Sarah Brown, a student called Nuger and a confrontation with a policeman, the consequence of which was the death of Nuger. On the following Monday, 1,000 demonstrators marched onto the Chamber of Deputies, determined to be provided with an adequate explanation. The Deputies summarily retreated and by the evening a further 1,000 students were outside and by now the mood of the demonstrators had turned hostile. At the end of the day barricades were erected around the district of the Boulevard St. Germain.
The police had lost control of the situation and the National Guard was called in to regain control. There followed several days of bloodshed as several important workers’ organisations sided with the so-called students. Within five days of the arrest of Sarah Brown, the students were submerged within a violent mob that was ready to fight for control of Paris.
The French Republic seemed in danger and reacted with extreme force with an estimated 20,000 troops deployed to quell the uprising. It was against this backdrop that Louis Lépine succeeded to the Prefecture of Police for Paris with a reputation as a disciplinarian prepared to use the ‘big stick’ to keep Paris under control. Lépine’s tactics were to allow the various factions to march through Paris but he used skilful and innovative tactics of crowd control to make sure that the various factions were, in effect kept apart, arriving at the planned rendezvous in stages.
Amongst his other innovations, he introduced the white stick for conducting traffic and established the river-boat brigade and armed police bicycle units. He installed a series of 500 telephone warnings to alert the public and fire services to fire, and he began the re-organisation of traffic movements within Paris by introducing one-way systems and roudabouts.
Lépine succeeded Jules Cambon
as Governor-General of Algeria in September 1897, serving less than a year in the post. He was recalled to Paris as the Dreyfus Affair
began to unravel the Third Republic. In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus
, an Alsatian of Jewish descent, had been found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to Germany. Lépine had officiated at the original trial. When two years later it became apparent that Dreyfus was innocent, as another culprit had been found, a retrial was ordered. The military court once again found Dreyfus guilty on the basis of false documents fabricated by French counter-intelligence officers. There was widespread dissent against the proceedings that culminated in a vehement public protestation from Emile Zola
, the novelist. Another retrial was subsequently ordered, and this time Dreyfus was freed, although he was not exonerated until 1906.
France seemed to be at the start of civil unrest in 1899, and once again Louis Lépine was recalled to help ease the situation. Again and again Paris appeared to be on the point of violent protestations, but through wise diplomacy and carefully organised policing Lepine managed to avoid the worst of times. He attempted to limit the role of the army as a force of internal order by handling most situations with police and gendarmerie alone. During these febrile times France faced the possibility of a military government and whilst there were occasions when Lépine required military assistance to control demonstrations it is credit to his reforms that these were rare and that the gendamerie largely controlled the civil strife.
In 1900 he founded the Musée des Collections Historiques de la Préfecture de Police
in response to the Exposition Universelle. The museum concentrated on the forensic science of policing and has gradually grown through subsequent years. It now contains evidence, photographs, letters, memorabilia, and drawings that reflect major events in the history of France (including conspiracies and arrests), famous criminal cases and characters, prisons, and daily life in the capital such as traffic and hygiene.
Lépine's realisation that the Police required the support of the people to be effective was the catalyst to continue reform almost to the end of his tenure. In 1912 he founded a detective training school based on modern forensic methods of training. This was a lasting legacy and was a methodology admired and copied by other countries.The article subtitled M.Lépine, Head of The Police Department,Creates a School for Training Detectives is available at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=990CE1DB113AE633A25756C2A96E9C946396D6CF New York Times August 25th 1912.
In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the River Seine in Paris flooded the French capital, reaching a maximum height of 8.62 metres. The Great Flood of Paris
as it is colloquially known caused extensive damage and forced thousands out of their homes. The infrastructure within Paris came close to destruction and there were major concerns for public health. France mobilised to save its capital. Lépine whose office included public health proved as tough and authoritarian as he had been on policing matters. In the flood's aftermath he established new procedures to address the problems of flooding. The instructions explained the importance of chemical cleansing and institutionalized the growing medical consensus about the causes of water borne diseases that had been controversial just a few years earlier
Armand Fallières
, President of the French Republic and Lépine worked closely with each other at the outset of the flood as they were concerned that Paris could dissolve into major disorder if the Government response was seen to be ineffectual.In the event major disturbances were largely avoided. Throughout the crisis Lépine was a visible presence attempting to lead from the front by reassuring Parisians that order would be maintained alongside the humanitarian efforts that were taking place.
from the Musée du Louvre was more of an embarrassment to Lépine although initially he acted with his usual decisiveness ordering the museum to be closed for a week whilst forensic analysis was carried out.
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire
, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down," came under suspicion; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso
, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated. The real thief was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia
an Italian wishing to return it to Italy. He was caught with the painting two years later when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
(La Bande à Bonnot), an anarchist criminal group that operated in France and Belgium during the Belle Époque
, from 1911 to 1912. Always a man of action, Lépine ordered the leader of the gang Jules Bonnot
to be captured on discovering his whereabouts in Paris. The operation began badly when three of his officers were shot during the operation. Lépine ordered the building to be blown up with dynamite and reputedly administered the final debilitating shot to the head of Jules Bonnot
Louis Lépine retired in 1913 and was succeeded by Célestin Hennion
.
He published his memoirs in 1929, four years before his death in 1933.
He was the brother of the Professor Raphaël Lépine
, the pioneering physiologist.
Biography
Louis Lépine studied law in his home city of Lyon and in Paris and Heidelberg. He served with distinction in the French army during the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871. Serving as a serjeant-major at BelfortBelfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
in the Alsace region his unit was besieged and continually attacked by the Prussians only surrendering after the hostilities had ceased. Lépine was awarded the Médaille militaire
Médaille militaire
The Médaille militaire is a decoration of the French Republic which was first instituted in 1852.-History:The creator of the médaille was the emperor Napoléon III, who may have taken his inspiration in a medal issued by his father, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland...
for his bravery . He then embarked on a career as a lawyer and public administrator, a successful career that took in provincial postings that included deputy prefect of Lapalisse, Montbrison. Langres and Fontainebleau and then service as prefect of the Indres, the Loire and Seine-et-Oise.,
The 1893 student uprising in Paris
In 1893 Lépine became Prefect of Police of the Seine (Paris) at a time when Paris and indeed France was politically volatile. The perceived failure of the previous Prefect Henri-Auguste LozéHenri-Auguste Lozé
Henri-Auguste Lozé was a French politician who was Prefect of Police for Paris from 1888 to 1893, a member of the National Assembly of the third republic , from 1902 to 1906 and a member of the Senate from 1906 to 1915 .-Biography:...
to quell serious student riots in 1893 resulted in Lépine’s appointment. The riots that had taken place arose out of a trivial incident involving the arrest of an actress Sarah Brown, a student called Nuger and a confrontation with a policeman, the consequence of which was the death of Nuger. On the following Monday, 1,000 demonstrators marched onto the Chamber of Deputies, determined to be provided with an adequate explanation. The Deputies summarily retreated and by the evening a further 1,000 students were outside and by now the mood of the demonstrators had turned hostile. At the end of the day barricades were erected around the district of the Boulevard St. Germain.
The police had lost control of the situation and the National Guard was called in to regain control. There followed several days of bloodshed as several important workers’ organisations sided with the so-called students. Within five days of the arrest of Sarah Brown, the students were submerged within a violent mob that was ready to fight for control of Paris.
The French Republic seemed in danger and reacted with extreme force with an estimated 20,000 troops deployed to quell the uprising. It was against this backdrop that Louis Lépine succeeded to the Prefecture of Police for Paris with a reputation as a disciplinarian prepared to use the ‘big stick’ to keep Paris under control. Lépine’s tactics were to allow the various factions to march through Paris but he used skilful and innovative tactics of crowd control to make sure that the various factions were, in effect kept apart, arriving at the planned rendezvous in stages.
The Modernisation of the Police
Lépine is credited as the founder of modern French policing. At the time of his first tenure the police had become renowned for corruption and low standards and trust between the police and the public was at a poor ebb.Lépine recognised that if France was not to relapse into military government once again the relationship between the civil police and the public had to change to become one of mutual trust. Thus he set an agenda of reform beginning by carefully codified police procedures and regulations, improving the professional quality of the police force with the introduction of examinations and promotions and by introducing forensic science into the work of the detective. It was during his time as Prefect of Police that fingerprinting became established as a method of identification. The examinations for police that he instituted were very thorough for example the course content included examining methods of forgery and burglary in sufficient detail that a component looked at how to tell if a lock had been picked. As befits his training as a lawyer, his was the first prefecture to introduce criminology into policing and to examine the psychology of a criminal.Amongst his other innovations, he introduced the white stick for conducting traffic and established the river-boat brigade and armed police bicycle units. He installed a series of 500 telephone warnings to alert the public and fire services to fire, and he began the re-organisation of traffic movements within Paris by introducing one-way systems and roudabouts.
The Dreyfus Affair
.Lépine succeeded Jules Cambon
Jules Cambon
Jules-Martin Cambon was a French diplomat.He began his career as a lawyer , served in the Franco-Prussian War and entered the civil service in 1871...
as Governor-General of Algeria in September 1897, serving less than a year in the post. He was recalled to Paris as the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
began to unravel the Third Republic. In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, an Alsatian of Jewish descent, had been found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to Germany. Lépine had officiated at the original trial. When two years later it became apparent that Dreyfus was innocent, as another culprit had been found, a retrial was ordered. The military court once again found Dreyfus guilty on the basis of false documents fabricated by French counter-intelligence officers. There was widespread dissent against the proceedings that culminated in a vehement public protestation from Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, the novelist. Another retrial was subsequently ordered, and this time Dreyfus was freed, although he was not exonerated until 1906.
France seemed to be at the start of civil unrest in 1899, and once again Louis Lépine was recalled to help ease the situation. Again and again Paris appeared to be on the point of violent protestations, but through wise diplomacy and carefully organised policing Lepine managed to avoid the worst of times. He attempted to limit the role of the army as a force of internal order by handling most situations with police and gendarmerie alone. During these febrile times France faced the possibility of a military government and whilst there were occasions when Lépine required military assistance to control demonstrations it is credit to his reforms that these were rare and that the gendamerie largely controlled the civil strife.
Préfet de Police 1900 - 1913
The final decade of Lépine's tenure as Préfet de Police proved not to be as politically dramatic as his early years He continued in the task of reforming the police force intent on creating a modern police force to meet the needs of Paris and France.In 1900 he founded the Musée des Collections Historiques de la Préfecture de Police
Musée des Collections Historiques de la Préfecture de Police
The Musée des Collections Historiques de la Préfecture de Police, also known as the Musée de la Préfecture de Police, is a museum of police history in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France....
in response to the Exposition Universelle. The museum concentrated on the forensic science of policing and has gradually grown through subsequent years. It now contains evidence, photographs, letters, memorabilia, and drawings that reflect major events in the history of France (including conspiracies and arrests), famous criminal cases and characters, prisons, and daily life in the capital such as traffic and hygiene.
Lépine's realisation that the Police required the support of the people to be effective was the catalyst to continue reform almost to the end of his tenure. In 1912 he founded a detective training school based on modern forensic methods of training. This was a lasting legacy and was a methodology admired and copied by other countries.The article subtitled M.Lépine, Head of The Police Department,Creates a School for Training Detectives is available at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=990CE1DB113AE633A25756C2A96E9C946396D6CF New York Times August 25th 1912.
Great Flood of Paris
Lépine faced a number of high profile events and crimes during this period of office. Each he handled with his usual decisiveness and belief in his own authority.In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the River Seine in Paris flooded the French capital, reaching a maximum height of 8.62 metres. The Great Flood of Paris
1910 Great Flood of Paris
The 1910 Great Flood of Paris was a catastrophe in which the Seine River, carrying winter rains from its tributaries, flooded Paris, France, and several nearby communities....
as it is colloquially known caused extensive damage and forced thousands out of their homes. The infrastructure within Paris came close to destruction and there were major concerns for public health. France mobilised to save its capital. Lépine whose office included public health proved as tough and authoritarian as he had been on policing matters. In the flood's aftermath he established new procedures to address the problems of flooding. The instructions explained the importance of chemical cleansing and institutionalized the growing medical consensus about the causes of water borne diseases that had been controversial just a few years earlier
Armand Fallières
Armand Fallières
Clément Armand Fallières was a French politician, president of the French republic from 1906 to 1913.He was born at Mézin in the département of Lot-et-Garonne, France, where his father was clerk of the peace...
, President of the French Republic and Lépine worked closely with each other at the outset of the flood as they were concerned that Paris could dissolve into major disorder if the Government response was seen to be ineffectual.In the event major disturbances were largely avoided. Throughout the crisis Lépine was a visible presence attempting to lead from the front by reassuring Parisians that order would be maintained alongside the humanitarian efforts that were taking place.
The theft of the Mona Lisa
The theft on August 22, 1911 of the Mona LisaMona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
from the Musée du Louvre was more of an embarrassment to Lépine although initially he acted with his usual decisiveness ordering the museum to be closed for a week whilst forensic analysis was carried out.
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down," came under suspicion; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated. The real thief was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia
Vincenzo Peruggia
Vincenzo Peruggia was the man who stole the Mona Lisa.-Theft:In 1911 Vincenzo Peruggia perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. The former Louvre worker hid inside the museum on Sunday, August 20, knowing that the museum would be closed the following day...
an Italian wishing to return it to Italy. He was caught with the painting two years later when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The defeat of the Bonnot Band
One of Lépine's last successes was the capture and destruction of the notorious Bonnot GangBonnot gang
The Bonnot Gang was a French criminal anarchist group that operated in France and Belgium during the Belle Époque, from 1911 to 1912...
(La Bande à Bonnot), an anarchist criminal group that operated in France and Belgium during the Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
, from 1911 to 1912. Always a man of action, Lépine ordered the leader of the gang Jules Bonnot
Jules Bonnot
Jules Bonnot was a French illegalist famous for his involvement in a criminal anarchist organization dubbed "The Bonnot Gang" by the French press. He viewed himself as a professional and avoided bloodshed, preferring to outwit his targets...
to be captured on discovering his whereabouts in Paris. The operation began badly when three of his officers were shot during the operation. Lépine ordered the building to be blown up with dynamite and reputedly administered the final debilitating shot to the head of Jules Bonnot
Concours Lépine
The Exposition Universelle provided the catalyst for innovation and Lépine decided to create a competition for inventors that continues to be held annually to this day. It was originally intended to encourage small toy and hardware manufacturers, but over the years it has grown into an annual event that includes a multitude of innovative ideas.Louis Lépine retired in 1913 and was succeeded by Célestin Hennion
Célestin Hennion
Célestin Hennion CVO was a French police officer who rose to head the Prefecture of Police . He is notable for his reorganisation of the Préfecture and the introduction of the Tiger's Brigades...
.
He published his memoirs in 1929, four years before his death in 1933.
He was the brother of the Professor Raphaël Lépine
Raphaël Lépine
Raphaël Lépine was a French physiologist who was a native of Lyons.From 1860 he served as interne at the hôpitaux de Lyon, and later moved to Paris, where from 1865 he worked as a hospital interne. In Paris he was a student of Jean-Martin Charcot...
, the pioneering physiologist.