Urban policy in the Napoleonic period cannot be reduced to an extension of the powers of the police force. The activities of the Ministry of the Interior demonstrate a concern for better urban governance. This article explores the redefinition of administrative urban policy, starting with the attributes of the Ministry of the Interior. The town is involved in many facets of life: the control of local authorities, limiting the scope of the municipal police, urban buildings and equipment policy, insertion of industrial estates in urban space. As a result, there is often no unified decision center, but many bureaus within the Ministry of Interior, whose officials try to promote a new discourse for legitimizing the new administrative centralization by other political actors.