There are several thousand private detectives in France practicing this profession. Private detectives have very varied activities depending on the missions.
Industrial, commercial or criminal cases, family investigations to find missing people or heirs. They can also infiltrate companies to uncover unscrupulous employees or intervene in financial disputes. A detective has no specific prerogatives. He is not a police officer, a gendarme or a customs officer, he has strictly the same rights as a simple individual, says Frédéric Debove, co-director of the internal security academy.