Police and Private Security: Possible Directions

• NCJ Number: 148802
• Author(s): B Swanton
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 8 pages
• Corporate Author: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 42.

Annotation

This paper compares and contrasts the functions served by the police and private security communities in Australia, and discusses the changing status of both groups.

Abstract

Police operate noncommercially, while private security protection operates commercially; police address a wide range of often intangible assets, while private security mainly protects physical and electronic assets; police protection activities are mostly offender-oriented, while private protection is primarily property-oriented; and police officers, unlike private security officers, are equipped with wide-ranging coercive powers. While the two communities view each other as serving very different functions, with police officers often seeing private security as possessing low status and lacking moral authority, in truth, they are more functionally alike than dissimilar. The principal key to changed attitudes among the two communities will be a recognition of the functional basis of occupation, rather than organizational affiliation. The evidence points to a future of shared education, accreditation, professional association, and even ideology. 8 references