The French banlieues often awaken, in American audiences, representations inspired by the ghettos or shrinking neighbourhoods of North American cities. The differences between ghettos and American cities are however numerous and the two social geographies are not really comparable. In order to minimize the risks of confusion and ethnocentrism (a disease that is equally widespread on either side of the Atlantic), we propose to begin by clarifying what is meant by "policing the banlieues". Next, we will study the security policies that have been evolved there, emphasizing the consequences of the 2005 riots.