private detectives recruited by the public to control civil servants

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He agreed to a team from France Télévisions accompanying him, on the condition that they not reveal the location or date of the meeting. Charles-François Chazit is a private detective, specializing in shadowing. “That’s the job of a hunter, to be able to survive for a very long time. You can carry out surveillance lasting more than ten hours“, he explained. At the beginning of his career, the detective mainly investigated cases of adultery or business leaders who were concerned about competitors. But over three or four years, his company was increasingly contacted by city hall or department boards for alleged fake sick leave.

Currently, he is starting to officially join civil servants who are on sick leave. “We therefore have a public agency on leave, and at the same time carrying out activities on a recurring basis. Hedge trimming, garden maintenance when you’re injured at work due to back pain…“, commented the private detective.

To document the dual activity prohibited for civil servants, the detective and his team followed the agent for several days and reproduced photos as evidence. “We see vehicles with trailers and excavators on the back, to do the work“, he underlined. Once the elements have been gathered sufficiently, Charles-François Chazit will submit an investigation report to the official’s superior. A document that can be the basis for imposing sanctions against the agent.

Between 2014 and 2022, sick leave increased by 80% in the public service. Faced with this increase, more and more elected officials are hiring private investigators to verify the reality of public servants’ plight. This is what the Mayor of Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) did in 2024. Severely criticized, he later justified his oversight in the name of taxpayers’ money. “A person who is not at work, or who is not on long-term sick leave but still respects instructions while actually working elsewhere, is committing embezzlement of public money.c”, said Stéphane Blanchet.

Currently, few elected officials publicly acknowledge the use of private investigators. Reached by telephone, a detective indicated that certain communities, in order not to be directly involved, asked lawyers to recruit investigators. “In terms of transparency, we prefer to show the easier-to-sink attorney fees, rather than the more obvious private investigation companies”said the detective.

Viewed as an anti-fraud weapon by some elected officials, the use of private investigators is not always justified. In Haute-Savoie, the mayor of the small town of Messery has just learned this the hard way. In May 2025, the elected official was convicted of moral harassment against a former city police officer whom he suspected of embezzlement and duplicitous activity.

In 2018, for weeks, Florent Pina was followed by a private detective. This is still marked today. “It’s very disturbing, very traumatic. The story is directly about my personal life with my partner, my children, my friends, at my house, my comings and goings on sick leave. While it was true that the actions of the private detectives, when they told me about it, I said to myself: nothing can stop them.” reports former police chief Messery.

Hiring a private detective costs between 5,000 and 10,000 euros in the city of Messery. When contacted, the mayor did not want to answer France Télévisions’ questions, but in court, he acknowledged his responsibility. “I sincerely regret what happened. I was of course highly discouraged and surrounded. We’ve gone too far. We played very badly“, he said before the judge, as reported Dauphiné was released. In the spring of 2026, justice could order council members to pay significant restitution to the city’s former police officers.