Distaste for the police in France has roots in clashes between demonstrators and the police in the 1960's, historians say. Those clashes, notably during demonstrations against the war in Algeria in 1965 and then during the student-worker protests in 1968, caused a rift between civil society and the police, and gave a lasting stigma to the police.

''The 1960's were the end of the neighborhood cop in France,'' said Cmdr. Alain Jackel, who leads the C.R.S. commandos in Champigny-sur-Marne. ''Until then, police officers would leave their house in the morning in uniform. Today they change at the police station.''