This question actually popped into my mind after I bought a CD of the soundtracks for the movies "The Pink Panther" and "Return Of The Pink Panther". As might be expected, I wondered which armored cars, and when, were used by French police forces in the past.

According to this article :

http://www.gendinfo.fr/Loisirs/Histoire/Des-gendarmes-sous-blindage

the French Gendarmerie had been equipped with M8 and M20 armored cars after WW2.



Nowadays, it still use some VBRGs (Véhicules Blindés à Roue de la Gendarmerie) that entered service in 1974 :




Here you'll find a list of armored vehicles that had been used by the Gendarmerie :

https://www.force-publique.net/index.php?page=5&ch=5&ti=17

H.P.

The French gendarmerie is a military force which had a role in the defense of the territory during the cold War. This explains why they manned armored vehicle.
The VBRG is a crowd control vehicle still in service today.

To my knowledge the police has no armored vehicle which the exception of the RAID, a SWAT equivalent, which has some light armored vehicles. I guess those are Renault Sherpa.

Olivier

Indeed

Some are fitted with a few bells and whistles





The RAID also use Panhard PVPs :



The Police "Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention" in Paris has received an armored truck in 1995 :



In 2016, the BRI tested the Nexter Titus :





It has been tested by the RAID as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=0qGmJ0AHElo



H.P.