The Ministry of Defense retained control of the Gendarmerie Nationale which is responsible for national policing outside urban areas.
[2] Of all the responsibilities, public safety is the most important focus of the national police in terms of resource allocations.
This body is responsible for: border and territorial surveillance of the country, public safety, maintaining and restoring of order, protecting public buildings and institutions, people and their property, the execution of the administrative police in rural and pastoral areas, management and monitoring of prisons, humanitarian actions in the case of national disaster or crisis and protection of the environment.
In addition to territorial defense and maintaining public order, it provides military and paramilitary justice to other corps of the armed forces and participates to the judicial and the surveillance police activities.
However, if police failed to gather sufficient evidence within the detention period, the prosecutor has the right to give the case to another officer subject to another 48 hours window.
A defendant has the right to a lawyer immediately upon detention, and bail is available for crimes carrying a penalty of less than 10 years' imprisonment.
Under the State Security Law, police may conduct searches without warrants when they have strong suspicion that a house shelters criminals or stolen property.
The checkpoints are designed to check for papers, to collect tolls or internal tax on goods and to enforce laws and regulations.