Prefect

     From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The word prefect can refer to any of a number of types of official, including:

• in Latin, praefectus: a high-ranking military or civil official in the Roman Empire; the title now attaches to the heads of some departments of the Roman Curia, who are traditionally Cardinals, and if they are not are titled Pro-Prefect.
• in the context of schools, a prefect is a pupil who has been given authority over other pupils in the school, such as a hall monitor or safety patrol.

France

A prefect (prefet) is the State's representative in a region (thus called prefet de region) or departement. His agency is called the prefecture. Sub-prefects (sous-prefets, sous-prefecture) operate in the arrondissements under his responsibility. The prefect of a region is also responsible for the departement where his prefecture is seated, and the prefect of a departement for the arrondissement where his prefecture is seated.

The prefects operate under the Minister of the Interior. Their main missions include.

• representing the state before the local governments;
• security
  • coordination of police and gendarmerie forces;
  • handling of major crises;
  • emergency defense procedures;
• handling of official documents, such as
  • production of identity documents such as identity cards and passports;
  • deliverance of driving licenses;
  • application of immigration rules;
• respect of legality: the services of the prefect control whether the decisions of local governments were legal and submit suspicious cases to administrative courts or financial auditing courts.

There is an exception with Paris (which is itself a departement) and the three surrounding departements (called the petite couronne, small crown): those four departements are governed by a single prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, which is the prefecture de police (PP). The prefet de police has the power of law enforcement for Paris, which is a power of the mayor for the other french cities and towns. Until 1977, Paris had indeed no mayor and was mostly ruled by the prefet de police (a situation inherited from the Paris Commune, 1871). However, the powers of the mayor of Paris were increased at the expense of those of the Prefet de Police in 2002, notably for traffic and parking decisions (the prefet retains the responsability on main thoroughfares such as the Champs-Elysees avenue, and on any street during the organization of demonstrations).

See Also:

• Ford Prefect