Prague, July 14 (CTK) – More and more Czech parents hire private detectives to spy on their problematic children if they take drugs or have suspicious friends, daily Pravo writes today.
Detective Michal Netik confirmed that he had registered a rise in the number of children’s cases by dozens a year.
His clients are often well-off parents who have problems with the upbringing of their offspring, primarily if they are addicted to drugs. In such a case, a detective shadows children after they leave school and monitors whom they meet or possibly where they take drugs, Netik told Pravo.
He did not elaborate because of the pledge to secrecy he gave to his clients. However, he stressed he was obliged to report any law violations to the police.
Another private detective, Jan Bocek, has long dealt with drugs and young people. He is mostly searching for children who ran away from home and might be involved in criminal activities, he said.
Nevertheless, the most frequent cases that private detectives solve are still marital disputes, infidelity as well as the spying on firms’ employees and the property situation of debtors or business partners of their clients.
There are dozens of civilian detectives registered in the Czech Republic who work alone and offer spying on people and other services. They charge from hundreds to thousands of crowns per hour plus operational costs, such as petrol, Pravo writes.
Czech private detectives work on the basis of the small-trades law and they do not possess any special powers. However, they need a license issued after they pass an exam mainly in legal knowledge, the paper says.
Private detectives complain about the lack of information during their work as they do not have access to the registers of persons and car number plates, for instance.
“This works abroad. If you have a licence and clearance, you will be allowed to get information beyond the framework of ordinary citizens, which is not legally possible in our country yet,” Bocek told Pravo.
A new law on security services is being prepared in the Czech Republic to introduce basic rules of granting licences and screening of security agencies’ employees. The draft legislation has been sent to parliament for debate, Pravo writes.
($1=22.878 crowns)
