"The problem is that at the moment anyone can act as a social detective"

Detective Patrick Kurtz in an interview with the Winterthurer Zeitung

Patrick Kurtz, active as a social detective in Switzerland, speaks in an interview with the Winterthurer Zeitung about the changes in his profession following the wave-making Federal Council ordinance on the general part of social insurance law.

Monitoring of insured persons in Switzerland

"The Swiss electorate has approved the 'Monitoring of Insured Persons' proposal. We asked Patrick Kurtz, owner of the Kurtz Detective Agency in Zurich, also active in Winterthur, what needs to be regulated in the Federal Council’s ongoing consultation in order to safeguard personal rights."

 

Following the vote on social detectives comes the implementation of the Federal Council ordinance on the general part of social insurance law (ATSV). Detective Patrick Kurtz explains what the voting result triggered, what the current situation is, and where the new ordinance is intended to take effect.

Explanatory video of the Swiss Federal Council (Germany only)

Have any inquiries from insurance companies come in yet?

Patrick Kurtz: "So far we haven’t noticed anything; others must have been pleased with assignments. Since work as a social detective only accounts for a very small part of our revenue, I had the feeling from the start that the topic was being given far more significance than the reality actually warrants."

What are the current professional requirements for people who may undertake monitoring?

Patrick Kurtz: "The legal situation is unfortunately such that not even a detective training is required, although a 'normal', i.e., standardised form of detective training does not exist in Switzerland or Germany. Criticism of the detective industry should therefore focus less on the powers and more on the competencies that supposedly qualify detectives for these powers. There are hardly any legal regulations in this regard, and this is the actual threat to personal rights in this whole matter. A qualified detective will disturb the target person as little as possible, will not intrude into their most personal life, and will only concentrate on observations relevant to the assignment for which there is a legal justification."

Is there a risk that ‘bad apples’ could compete for the monitoring work and damage the reputation of the industry?

Patrick Kurtz: "This risk exists in any industry without state-regulated training. Specifically for the detective profession, bad apples have always been part of the professional reality. Not all act with malicious intent; rather, they unknowingly harm themselves, their targets, and their clients through improper investigations due to mere lack of knowledge of theoretical and practical fundamentals."

Winterthur relies on the city police to monitor social assistance recipients. Is this a cost-effective solution because private detective agencies are more expensive?

Patrick Kurtz: "Foregoing the use of detective agencies in Winterthur certainly makes the budget more predictable. If funds are approved for us, there are initially no benchmarks to calculate what return to expect: How many payments to now-identified social welfare fraudsters can be saved in the future? How much can be recovered in repayments and fines? Winterthur initially takes the safe route. I can understand that from a fiscal policy perspective; however, this safety-minded approach naturally also foregoes the opportunity to improve a situation that many taxpayers find unsatisfactory. I can only communicate my impression that the municipalities that have worked with us in the past generally found this cooperation very fruitful."

Note

The original article appeared in the Winterthurer Zeitung. The highlights (bold text) and links on this page may differ from the original.

Kurtz Investigations Zürich and Switzerland

Max-Högger-Strasse 6

8048 Zürich

Tel.: +41 (0)44 5522 264

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-schweiz.ch

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-schweiz.ch/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-zuerich-schweiz