A police officer from Toulouse has been charged in a probe that began after a school director suspected a man of taking photos of children outside a primary school in Nice. The 68-year-old private detective, a former CRS officer revoked from the police, was jailed on Monday, 12 October, in Toulouse. He is suspected of corruption and undeclared work. The policeman is placed under judicial control and banned from exercising. The case started in early October on the French Riviera. Staff at the primary school said an unknown man was watching people nearby, then returned on Wednesday, 7 October, taking photos with a phone. When police arrived, the man presented an authentic professional card and claimed he was one of their colleagues. He said he was on sick leave but collaborating with the former colleague who had become a private detective, with a mission linked to the Côte d’Azur that led investigators to a company in Haute-Garonne. Investigators from the division for organised and specialised crime and the IGPN, France’s police internal affairs watchdog, focused on the alleged financial irregularities. The officer is suspected of having combined sick-leave allowances with pay for private work, with investigators pointing to cash payments that were not declared. A canine unit official is also accused of further abuse of his position. Investigators suspect he used his access to confidential police databases while on sick leave, including the TAJ case-processing system and the SIV vehicle registration system, to extract information. These alleged access attempts are examined in connection with his relationship with the private detective. Both men are now under judicial investigation led by an examining judge, the private detective being held while the officer faces restrictions including an employment ban.