Following the victory of the French Army at Fleurus on June 26 1794, a regime of occupation was imposed on Belgium. To maintain public order and repress violations of the arrêtés of the representatives onmission sent by the Convention, comités de sur veillance based on the same institutional organization prevailing in Revolutionary France were installed in the principal towns of the country. Composed largely of citizens from the Austrian Netherlands who were animated by the ideals of the French Revolution, these comités also included some French citizens. Their task consisted of conducting inquiries inspired either from spontaneous denonciations that had been sent to them or from the reports of secret agents they employed. A veritable political police, the comités de sur veillance of Brabant did not last long : installed in September 1794, they were suppressed in Februrary 1795, at the end of a controversial existance.