In a 46-page report: Public Outrage: police officers above the law in France - Amnesty International has accused French authorities of failing to adequately investigate alleged cases of violence by security forces.

Police violence in France has been directed mainly at French citizens of ethnic origin and at foreign nationals living in France.

Cases profiled in the Amnesty report include two pregnant women who say they were punched by police officers and the case of two men who died after reportedly being ill-treated.

Amnesty says that beatings and even killings often aren't looked into and that security officials involved are rarely brought to justice. Although not every case brought against French authorities has merit, the discrepancy between the number of complaints made and the number of disciplinary sanctions "raises questions about the thoroughness and impartiality of the investigations".

For example in 2006, 639 allegations were made and 8 police officers dismissed following investigations. In addition, a high number of complaints against law enforcement officials are closed by the prosecutor without reaching trial.

Another trend has been for people who are victims of police violence or who witness police brutality to find themselves charged with the criminal offense of insulting or assaulting a police officer.

In France the investigative procedures against police fail to meet the standards required by international law. Amnesty has called on French authorities to reform the current system and create an independent police complaints commission. But good luck on this because the French have proved unresponsive in the past. Recommendations made by Amnesty in a 2005 report, were all but ignored by French authorities.

Representatives from the French justice ministry, the interior ministry and the National Union of Police Officers disagree with the findings in the Amnesty report. Guillaume Didier of the justice ministry said: "there is no tolerance for police violence".

It's difficult not to see this response as routine official denial when the findings of Amnesty and other independent observers indicate that there is a problem with police violence in France.