Sartine personally analyzed an enormous correspondence and received his subordinates and commissioners of police anytime of day and night. He was the first to use repentant thieves and reprieved convicts as informants and agents. To courtiers who found this shocking, he used to say: "Pray tell me the name of honest people who would like to do such a job." Sartine was also a man of action, with great presence of mind. On one occasion, having to quell a riot on the "Place Maubert", he met the crowd at the head of a company of musketeers and had an officer respectfully remove his hat and tell the crowd: "Gentlemen, we come here in the name of the King, but our orders are to shoot at the scoundrels only. I therefore pray the honest people to leave the square." The crowd disbanded without a gunshot.