GRENAT INVESTIGATIONS AGENCY
Investigation firm approved by the Ministry of the Interior
Historical
Like crime, private intelligence has always existed.
Certainly, over time, intelligence techniques have evolved considerably. Historically, investigations have been the prerogative of the State, and therefore of the police. However, there is no such thing as an investigation without prior information.
Alain Bauer , renowned criminologist and author of hundreds of works, including around forty on crime, declares that the "daddy" of the profession is Sherlock Holmes (although he prefers Hercule Poirot). His “Holmesian” look arouses the interest of many. The criminologist author said of Sherlock: "He represents an atypical and little-known profession even today, discreet but not secret." This fact is still very true today .
From Antiquity, then in the Middle Ages, we detect numerous texts relating the quest for economic and military intelligence. However, we had to wait until the end of the 19th century to discover much more precise texts concerning private intelligence.
XIXe siècle en Europe
Le célèbre aventurier Eugène-François Vidocq est considéré comme le père fondateur du métier détective en France. Cet ancien délinquant devient "indic" dans la police, avant d'être gracié.
En 1811, le préfet de police le nomme à la tête de la brigade de sûreté. Vidocq détesté et jalousé, est contraint de se retirer de la police.
Il fonde alors en 1833, à Paris, le bureau de renseignements pour le commerce, la première agence de détectives privés. Ses premiers clients sont des commerçants parisiens auxquels il vend ses services de surveillance économique et de renseignement, puis il recueille des informations sur les conjoints infidèles. Effectivement, à cette époque, tromper son conjoint est un délit pénal très grave.
Eugène Vidocq décédera en 1857 à Paris, seul et méprisé de tous.
Connu à l'époque sous le nom d'agent d'affaires, Eugène Vidocq a fortement contribué à mettre la profession d'enquêteur privé en évidence. La réputation de cet aventurier fait tomber dans l'oubli certains autres noms de détective comme : Jean-Marie Goron, chef de la Sûreté générale qui fonde son cabinet d'enquêteur en 1896.
Au début du XXe siècle, apparaît la création de plusieurs agences dirigées le plus souvent par des personnalités issues du monde judiciaire.
Célèbre maxime de Vidocq : "Pour pouvoir découvrir les voleurs, il faut l'avoir été soi-même", elle est encore aujourd'hui martelée par certains policiers.
19th century in the United States
A few years after Vidocq, it was Allan Pinkerton who became the founding father of the profession in the United States. This former sheriff opened his agency in Chicago in 1850 . In particular, it carries out discreet investigations on trains to warn of frequent thefts.
He is also known for foiling the Baltimore Plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The young, newly elected president then recruited Pinkerton into his secret services during the Civil War, until 1865, as a way of thanking him.
Shortly after, in 1869, his agency employed nearly 10,000 agents across the country and enforced law in the Far West, where police were virtually non-existent.
Although private detectives are better regarded in the United States than in France, just like Vidocq, the memory he leaves is not very glorious. Today with 48,000 employees, the Pinkerton agency has become famous throughout the world.
Pinkerton's famous maxim: "We never sleep" is the origin of the expression "The private eye", very popular in the United States.
The profession of private detective will not be talked about for many years.
However, we realize the great need for intelligence . This is an integral part of the aspirations of human nature. This means that intelligence has its place in the pyramid of needs defined by the American humanist psychologist.
In July 1973, the famous lawyer René Floriot declared to a television journalist: "being a private detective is a serious profession on the condition that it is done seriously."
At the beginning of the 1980s, the State decided to regulate the profession by legislating in 1983 , then in 2003 and 2012, setting up a control body: the CNAPS (National Council for Private Security Activities).
A world without intelligence or investigation, therefore, a world without security, is inconceivable.