Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sureté jusqu'en 1827, tome III

The memoirist recounts episodes and reflections from his career in urban policing, describing how authorities once tolerated and even exploited skilled thieves for amusement and practical ends, and later enlisted criminals as secret agents in exchange for impunity. He examines institutional practices such as recruiting escaped convicts, compromising informants, and using deception to control suspects, while highlighting betrayals, punitive reversals, and the moral ambiguities of such methods. A sequence of anecdotes and observations traces shifts in policing tactics, social attitudes toward vice, and the fraught relationship between law enforcement and the criminal underworld.