I. – The State representative implements the policies of the State in the local authority. He/she directs the services of the State subject to the exceptions listed exhaustively by a decree in the Conseil d’Etat. He alone is authorised to speak on behalf of the State before the Territorial Council and to commit the State to the local authority.
II. – The representative of the State may take, for the communes of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, and in all cases where this has not been provided for by the municipal authorities, all measures relating to the maintenance of public health, safety and tranquillity.
This power may only be exercised by the representative of the State with regard to a single commune after formal notice has been sent to the mayor which has remained without result.
If the maintenance of law and order is threatened in several communes, the representative of the State may substitute himself, by reasoned decree, for the mayors of these communes for the repression of offences against public tranquillity, for the maintenance of public order and for the policing of nautical activities.
III. – Subject to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to the exercise of the mission of the judicial police and the provisions of the General Code of Local Authorities relating to crime prevention, the representative of the State in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon leads and coordinates the entire internal security system.
To this end, and without prejudice to the missions of the gendarmerie relating to national defence, he/she determines the missions other than those relating to the exercise of the judicial police and coordinates the action of the various services and forces available to the State in terms of internal security.
He/she directs the action of the national police services and national gendarmerie units in terms of public order and administrative policing. In compliance with military status as far as the national gendarmerie is concerned, the head of the national gendarmerie command and his equivalent for the national police are placed under his authority and report to him on the execution and results of their missions in these matters.