department, in dress uniform at
Bastille Day 2015 in
Brest defence and security zones (and their respective seats): Paris, Nord (Lille), Ouest (Rennes), Sud-Ouest (Bordeaux), Sud (Marseille), Sud-Est (Lyon) and Est (Strasbourg). The post of prefect was first created on 17 February 1800 by then-
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Their roles were initially similar to those of the pre-revolutionary
intendants. Prefects were initially charged with supervising local governments in their department, ensuring that taxes flowed to Paris and supervising conscription at the local level. Currently, the main role of the prefect is defined in article 72 of the
Constitution of France: The exact role and attributions are defined in
decrees, most notably decrees of 1964, 1982, 2004, each replacing the preceding one. The prefect of the
département containing the
chef-lieu de région is also the
préfet de région, or the prefect of the
région. Prefects operate under the
Minister of the Interior. Their main missions include: • representing the State to local governments; • security • the coordination of
police and
gendarmerie forces; • handling major
crises; • emergency
defence procedures; • safety • the decision to evacuate zones facing natural disasters; the organisation of relief operations; • responsibility for official documents, such as • the production of identity documents, including
identity cards and
passports; • the issuing of
driving licences, and their administrative withdrawal in case of certain offences; • the application of
immigration rules; • ensuring respect for
legality: officials working for the prefect verify the legality of decisions made by local governments and submit doubtful cases to
administrative courts or to financial auditing courts. Prefects may issue administrative orders in areas falling within the competency of the national government, including general safety. For instance, they may prohibit the use of certain roads without special
tyres in times of
snow. The prohibition on smoking or leaving the motor running while filling the fuel tank of a motor vehicle is another example of a matter typically decided by a prefectoral administrative order. On official visits, prefects wear
uniforms. In
metropolitan France and
Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the uniforms are dark blue; in the rest of
overseas France, the uniforms are white. For much of the time after 1800, the departments largely functioned as transmission belts for policies developed in Paris. As such, prefects originally had fairly extensive powers of supervision and control over departmental affairs. This was especially true during the Consulate and the
First and
Second Empires, when even the most trivial local matter had to be referred to the prefect. Since 1982, local government has been progressively decentralised, and the prefect's role has largely been limited to preventing local policies from conflicting with national policy. At the
commune level, prefects appoint a
special delegation in cases of dissolution or resignation of the
municipal council. ==Special cases==