Brief History of the Security Industry in the United States (From Business and Crime Prevention, P 197-218, 1997, Marcus Felson and Ronald V Clarke, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 165682
• Author(s): R D McCrie
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The modern security services industry evolved in the United States during the second half of the 19th century; by the mid-1990's it employed almost three times the number of those employed in local, State, and Federal law enforcement combined.

Abstract

Several categories of security business emerged to control different types of industrial problems. Areas include guarding, investigations, personal protection, alarm monitoring, and armored couriers. The security industry also includes separate categories of companies that design, manufacture, distribute, and sell a wide variety of products, components, systems, and services. These include locks, safes and vaults, access control, communications and identification systems, and consulting services. The guarding and investigations business are the most visible and have the largest revenues. The security industry is likely to continue to grow rapidly. Efforts to create uniform standards in the industry have been uneven. Major issues include whether the security industry is beneficial for public law enforcement, whether the security industry works against public interests as it pursues or abets a profit-driven strategy of the client, and how academic security can address not only industry concerns but also societal concerns. 25 references (Author abstract modified)