PARIS — Thousands of police officers demonstrated in Paris Wednesday in frustration over what they said were bad working conditions, a lack of public respect and a wave of suicides in their ranks this year.

Police unions said that about 27,000 people marched in the heart of Paris, from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de la République, the biggest such police demonstration in nearly 20 years. The large numbers of police officers in civilian clothes — they are forbidden by law to demonstrate in uniform — were a kind of response to the mass demonstrations of “Yellow Vest” protesters earlier in the year.

Weeks of clashes at many of those protests gave the French police a collective black eye, as questions were raised about the harshness of their tactics. Their public image, shaky in France at the best of times, suffered even as officers were repeatedly pressed into service on successive weekends to handle Yellow Vest protests.

And police suicides have mounted this year, well over the annual average among law enforcement personnel: So far this year, there have been more than 50 in the 150,000-member national police.

A French parliamentary inquiry made public this summer noted a range of problems affecting morale in the police, including unpaid overtime and poor working conditions. On Wednesday, demonstrators also spoke of their anger at how anti-police slogans had recently flourished in crowds and on walls.

“This is about the conditions we have to do our jobs in. Just go into the police stations, and you’ll see,” said Eric Defremont, a police union official at the march Wednesday, noting the stations’ dilapidation and uncleanliness.

“It’s about the lack of respect for us. Yes, there’s a malaise in the police. They don’t even give us the proper tools,” said Mr. Defremont, a former unit commander. “Nobody in France tells their children, ‘I want you to be a police officer,’” he said. “We just want to be respected.”

Near him, a shirt printed with the words “Stop the Suicides” had been placed on a mannequin, which was hanging from a makeshift gallows perched on top of a van. Elsewhere, demonstrators lay on the ground surrounded by 51 cardboard coffins, a recognition of this year’s suicide toll.

“Look, I’m doing a mission of public service,” said Soazig Henrio, a forensics officer. “I’m the one who takes the samplings from the crime scenes. Every day I give service to society,” she said. “But society doesn’t return it to me.”

Unlike in the United States, the police in France are a national force, and don’t generally walk a beat. Instead, they are normally out in the streets to aggressively handle conflicts, and there is little ordinary, day-to-day contact with citizens.

Thousands of injuries to Yellow Vest protesters, including some partial blindings from rubber bullets, have damaged the image of the police. At later protests, there were even shouts of “Go commit suicide” directed toward the police.

The suicides received a brief flurry of government attention this year, and there were promises of psychiatric intervention, but officials have otherwise said little about them.

A 32-year-veteran of the French riot police, which played a key role in repressing the Yellow Vest movement, said he was tired of being shifted from city to city, week after week, to put down protests. “I don’t even get to see my kids anymore,” said the officer, Franck, who refused to give his last name.

“There’s a total fed-upness with this,” he said. “We’re sick of being singled out.” He said he had known officers who had killed themselves, and said, “Some of us just crack.”

Promising more money and more hires in front of the French Senate Wednesday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner insisted he was paying attention to what was happening in the streets. “The police have suffered from budget cuts for years,” Mr. Castaner told the senators.

But Miguel Guelorget, a police officer in the demonstration, said that a government plan to revise pensions threatened the special retirement regimes like that accorded the police.

“Police officers usually don’t protest, but between the working conditions, the retirement reforms and the suicide rates, we have to be here,” he said.

Melissa Godin contributed reporting.

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