gendarmes, mounted police, fines issued

Police Open Investigation of Sino-Forest Sino-Forest, a Chinese company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, confirmed that it was the subject of a criminal investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police over the reporting of its revenue.


Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback (equestrians) or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in the UK for crime prevention and high visibility policing roles.

Car drivers try to put the brakes on traffic fines

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Police have, in the past, issued excessive fines according to a French policeman

In France, a retired police commissioner is causing a stir with a book he’s just published. He says it exposes the excessive number of traffic fines issued by the police.

In this week's Postcard from Europe, our France correspondent John Laurenson talks about the sometimes strained relations between drivers and the ‘gendarmes’.

gendarmes,
(zhän'därm', zhäN'därm')

n.

1. A member of the French national police organization constituting a branch of the armed forces with responsibility for general law enforcement.
2. Slang. A police officer.

[French, from Old French gent d'armes, gendarme, sing. of gens d'armes, mounted soldiers, men-at-arms : gens, people, men (from Latin gentēs, pl. of gēns, clan) + de, of (from Latin dē; see de-) + armes, pl. of arme, weapon; see arm².]