ABSTRACT: This article deals with Marseille's social and political history between the 1850s and 1910s. During this period of extensive economic and demographic growth, the municipal government and police never seemed able to handle the consequences of these rapid changes. The case of Marseille thus allows us to test the connection between a growth situation interpreted as a ‘permanent crisis’ and police reform. The persistence of the crisis discourse invites us to examine the connection between the alarmist rhetoric and reforms in law enforcement. Is the first the cause of the second and, if not, how do we interpret the continuing complaints of a crisis for more than half a century, when they must have lost their effectiveness? This article examines the weakness and discontinuity of the relationship between claims of a crisis and police reforms and situates these reforms within the political context of tensions between the national and local levels.