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Police Privatization

Policing is widely regarded as an exclusively public sector activity conducted by sworn officers, but a large and increasing share of the public's demand for security is handled by the private sector. In 1965, there were more sworn police officers than private security personnel; by 1995, the number of private security personnel had soared to about triple the number of sworn officers.

The shift to privatization in nonpersonnel resources has been equally strong, including target hardening (taking actions that support crime prevention) and detection devices such as closed-circuit surveillance systems, sophisticated alarm systems, and protective shielding and armament. These shifts have occurred rather suddenly—it had taken centuries for public policing to establish dominance over private alternatives but less than three decades to reverse the trend.

Privatization and Private Security

“Privatization” typically means the absence of government in the provision of protective services. Private citizens or institutions often buy services to protect life and property and reduce fear, and they determine how the services will be allocated. This includes a myriad of self-help approaches to protecting private property and personal safety, including the following: (1) hiring of security guards and private investigators; (2) installation of surveillance, lighting, locks, secure doors and windows, and alarm systems; (3) use of citizen foot patrols and block watches and escort services for senior citizens and university women; (4) citizen band radio automobile patrols and radio alert networks for taxis, buses, and commercial vehicles; (5) carrying of concealed weapons by private citizens.

Privatization occurs within the government, too, as when federal, state, or local governments contract with private sources for specific services. The federal government is, in fact, the largest employer of private security guards. Examples of the duties for which private security guards are hired by governments include the following: security of government buildings, court security, prisoner custody, computer and communications system maintenance, training, laboratory services, radio dispatching, video surveillance, and traffic and parking control.

“Private security” generally refers to enterprises that focus primarily on crime prevention and investigation for specific individuals, organizations, or facilities. Private security firms concentrate more on preventing crime than responding to it, with staff that typically include security guards, corporate security and loss prevention personnel, alarm and surveillance specialists, private investigators, armored vehicle personnel, manufacturers of security equipment, locksmiths, security consultants and engineers, and people involved in a variety of related roles from private forensic laboratory scientists to guard dog trainers and drug testing specialists.

Trends in Privatization

The shift toward privatization that occurred toward the end of the twentieth century was both sudden and sharp, especially when viewed over the almost 200 years since the creation of the first metropolitan police department in London. Table 1 displays more precisely the dimensions of the shift in terms of the ratios of private security industry personnel to sworn officers from 1965 to 1995.

Table 1. Sworn Officers and Security Officers: 1965–1995
Security Officers Per Sworn Officer
19650.9
19751.9
19852.4
19952.7
Source: Cunningham, Strauchs, and Van Meter. (1991, 3). Census and Law Enforcement Administration and Management Statistics (LEMAS), selected years.

The number of persons employed in private security positions began to surpass the number in sworn officer positions in the 1960s, and this numerical advantage has continued to grow in the years since. There were about 2,000,000 members of private security organizations in 1990; the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimates fewer than one-third as many police officers for the same year: 600,000 (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1991). By the mid-1990s, Sears employed 6,000 security guards (Office of International Criminal Justice 1995)—more than the number of sworn officers employed by the Los Angeles Police Department.

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