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Throughout the process of identification of criminals, villagers’ testimonies show that surveillance had been conducted well before any offence took place. Anything foreign or unusual was immediately noticed. Identification was then achieved through «talk» (rumors) which linked individuals to the incriminating occurence. The prévôté of Arches was often confronted with delinquents who took advantage of the border to try and escape the judicial system of neighboring Lorraine. The justice system had to be able to identify and bring under control criminal populations. But thieves had developed some tricks of their own to escape its grasp, and its agents may have ended up capturing mostly occasional thieves, rather than hardened criminals.