Research and Intervention Brigade

A Research and Intervention Brigade (or Investigation and Intervention Brigade), commonly abbreviated BRI (Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention), often called "Anti-Gang Brigade", is a unit of the French National Police.

BRIs specialise in serious criminal cases such as armed robbery and kidnappings. They typically attempt to catch offenders in the act after monitoring their activities, a technique that was first experimented in the 1960s by the then-new Paris BRI.

They use a mix of traditional techniques and modern technology to collect and archive data about banditry.

There are now more than 15 BRI units, located in France's major cities. The first of them, the Paris BRI (or BRI-PP for Préfecture de Police), was created in 1964.

In 1972, in the wake of the Munich massacre, it was decided that BRI-PP would, as an additional task, form the nucleus of a SWAT task force known as Brigade Anti-Commando (Counter-commando Brigade) or BRI-BAC. BRI-BAC, when activated, is reinforced by other specialised units of the Préfecture de police. It has been involved in the resolution of hostage crises from its beginnings in the early 1970s to the Porte de Vincennes siege in January 2015 and the "Bataclan" assault during the November 2015 Paris attacks. In the last two cases, BRI-BAC and the National Police's RAID operated together as part of the National Police Intervention Force (Force d'Intervention de la Police nationale or FIPN).

History
The first BRI, BRI-PP was created in Paris in 1964. François le Mouël, a police commissary with the Paris Préfecture de Police (PP), suggested that there were situations when, instead of waiting until a crime had been committed to start an inquiry, the police could achieve better results by keeping a close watch on known or suspected criminals and/or some of their potential targets. The criminals would then be arrested - either just before the crime took place or soon after but never during the action itself - so that there would be enough evidence for prosecution while avoiding the risks of shoot-outs and innocent victims. Initially set up as a new section in one of the PP's Directorate of Judiciary Police brigades, BRI became a separate brigade in 1967, still under le Mouël's leadership.

The BRI method was innovative enough so that it was widely copied all around France and in other European countries.

One of the better-known BRI successes was achieved in 1977 when the raptors of banker Gérard Mallet, who had been under surveillance for more than four months, were arrested less than four hours after they had committed their crime.

Missions

 * All BRI units - including Paris BRI-PP : Judiciary police work with an emphasis on flagrante delicto cases. All BRIs can set up special response teams in case of a terrorist attack.
 * Paris BRI (BRI-PP) when activated as BRI-BAC (brigade anticommando): crisis response in hostage and terrorism cases.

Organization
The BRIs follow the administrative and law enforcement structure of the French Republic. As a unitary state, the French National Police has jurisdiction over the whole territory. The only exceptions are the Paris and Bouches-du-Rhône Prefectures of Police, which due to the specifics of criminal activities within their borders have autonomous police authority governing bodies directly subordinated to the French Minister of the Interior. The RAID is the French National Police's elite Counter-terrorism formation dedicated to preventive CT measures and reaction to acts of terror in progress. The RAID is an independent agency within the National Police, directly subordinated to the minister.

Unlike it the BRIs are integral parts of the French criminal police. As the agency acts against both national and international organized crime syndicates on French soil, the role of these units is the protection of police investigators and apprehension of violent criminals. Their extensive SWAT training places them in an intermediate position between the regular police forces, preserving day-to-day public law and order and the RAID units. To provide a better coordination between the two in response to acts of terror, the BRIs and the RAID have been placed under the recently established National Police Intervention Force. As BRI officers are foremost members of the judiciary police, they normally operate in plain clothes for most missions. Hoods are used to ensure anonymity during some of these missions.

As of 2018 there are the Paris BRI, two national and several regional BRI units, independent from one another:
 * Paris Police Prefecture
 * Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris
 * Brigade de recherche et d'intervention - Préfecture de police (BRI-PP) - the Paris unit. It is the first BRI unit and as such the precursor of the other units. It becomes Brigade Anticommando (BRI-BAC) in case of a security crisis.
 * Central Directorate of the Judicial Police
 * National BRIs
 * Brigade de recherche et d'intervention - Nationale (BRI-NAT) - based in Nanterre (near Paris) in support of inquiries conducted at the national level.
 * Brigade de recherche et d'investigation - Financières nationales (BRI-FN) - attached to the financial crime directorate of the National Police
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Lyon (DIPJ Lyon) - BRI Lyon
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Marseille (DIPJ Marseille) - BRI Marseille
 * Nice Branch of the Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Marseille (DIPJ Marseille – antenne PJ Nice) - BRI Nice
 * Regional Service of the Judicial Police Montpellier (SRPJ Montpellier) - BRI Montpellier
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Rennes (DIPJ Rennes)
 * Nantes Branch of the Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Rennes (DIPJ Rennes – antenne PJ Nantes) - BRI Nantes
 * Regional Service of the Judicial Police Rouen (DIPJ Rennes – SRPJ Rouen) - BRI Rouen
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Lille (DIPJ Lille) - BRI Lille
 * Regional Service of the Judicial Police Versailles (DRPJ Versailles) - BRI Versailles
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Strasbourg (DIPJ Strasbourg) - BRI Strasbourg
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Bordeaux (DIPJ Bordeaux) - BRI Bordeaux (with a branch team in Bayonne)
 * Regional Service of the Judicial Police Toulouse (DIPJ Bordeaux – SRPJ Toulouse) - BRI Toulouse
 * Regional Service of the Judicial Police Ajaccio (DRPJ Ajaccio) - BRI Ajaccio (with a branch team in Bastia)
 * Interregional Directorate of the Judicial Police Orléans (DIPJ Orléans) - BRI Orléans

BRI-PP commanders

 * François Le Mouël (1964 - 1971) Section de recherche et d'intervention until 1967 then BRI
 * Jean Sautereau (1971-1974)
 * Marcel Leclerc (1974-1978)
 * Robert Broussard (1978-1982)
 * René-Georges Querry (1982-1983)
 * Claude Cancès (1983-1987)
 * Pierre Cavin (1987-1989)
 * Jean-Marc Bloch (1989-1996)
 * Yves Jobic (1996-2001)
 * Jean-Jacques Herlem (2001-2003)
 * Christian Flaesch (2003-2004)
 * Pascal Carreau (2004-2008)
 * Michel Faury (2008-2013)
 * Christophe Molmy (current)

Trivia

 * The Paris BRI-PP is featured in the 2004 film 36 Quai des Orfèvres.