DGSI (Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure)

History

According to the DGSI, an ordinance of 16 November 1944 established the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) within the National Police. At first it neutralised wartime adversaries; during the Cold War it focused on counterintelligence, and later also on terrorism and proliferation.¹

On 1 July 2008 the DST and the Central Directorate of General Intelligence (DCRG) merged to form the DCRI, and with effect from 30 April 2014 the DCRI was transformed into the DGSI, reporting directly to the Minister of the Interior and with greater autonomy in financial and staffing matters.¹

Functions

The DGSI combines the capabilities of an intelligence service and a specialised law enforcement agency. It leads the fight against terrorism in cooperation with other services; its fields also include counterintelligence, the protection of economic interests and the detection of extremist threats (as described for the DCRI).¹

It is one of the six first-circle services subject to oversight by, among others, the CNCTR and the Parliamentary Intelligence Delegation (see DGSE).²

Legal basis: decree of 30 April 2014

Decree no. 2014-445 (in force from 12 May 2014) defines the DGSI as an active service of the National Police which seeks, centralises and exploits intelligence concerning national security and, within its fields, takes part in judicial police tasks (Art. 1).³

Under Article 2 the DGSI prevents and helps to combat foreign interference, terrorism and attacks on state security; monitors individuals and groups of radical inspiration liable to resort to violence; protects national defence secrecy and the country’s economic, industrial and scientific potential; counters the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and monitors international criminal organisations and crime linked to information technology. Only within this scope does it take part in the surveillance of electronic and radio communications.³

Services involved in protecting national security must pass information in this field to the DGSI without delay (Art. 3). The DGSI has a central administration and territorial services reporting solely to the Director-General (Art. 4), as well as liaison officers abroad (Art. 5). The decree repealed the decree of 27 June 2008 on the DCRI (Art. 11).³

Earlier history

Among its distant roots the DGSI lists the judicial police and general intelligence brigade set up in 1907 by Célestin Hennion and the General Inspectorate of Territorial Surveillance of 1934. After the full occupation of France in November 1942, counterintelligence was rebuilt in London within the BCRA; the first head of the DST in 1944 was Roger Wybot.¹

The decision to restructure police intelligence was taken in 2007 in view of the high terrorist threat; the result was the merger of the DST and the DCRG into the DCRI in 2008.¹

Parliamentary oversight

The Parliamentary Intelligence Delegation has eight members – four deputies and four senators; its chair rotates between the two chambers every year. Its work is covered by national defence secrecy, and in the public version of its report classified passages are replaced with asterisks.⁴