The Thin Blurred Line: The Changing Role of Private Security Services in the United States

• In Event: Policing and Community Security

Abstract

The private security industry serves a vast and growing array of private and public security functions. It continues to be the dominant form of security for loss prevention and cyber security, but it is also expanding services into roles often reserved for public police, like armed patrol, responding to calls for service, and detaining criminal suspects. The prior literature on private security has primarily focused on providing historical accounts of the industry’s roles and growth, with a limited systematic exploration of how private security’s changing roles impact Constitutional protections, public perceptions, crime rates, or fear of crime. This paper describes the past, present, and likely future trends of private security in the United States by documenting the industry’s changing and expanding roles through a review of the literature and results from an exploratory survey of police executive leadership from across the United States. We conclude with an agenda for future research, policy, and practice regarding the use, collaboration with, and regulation of the private security industry.

Authors

• George Pesta, Florida State University

• Julie Brancale, Florida State University

• Darrel Stephens, Florida State University

• Thomas Blomberg, Florida State University