NCJ Number
100603
Journal
Canadian Police College Journal Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: (1985) Pages: 225-253
Date Published
1985
Length
29 pages
Annotation
To examine public attitudes toward and perceptions of private security, questionnaires were administered to a nonrandom sample of 209 Canadians, age 15 to over 65. A subsample of approximately 50 persons responded to additional questions regarding the relationship between cultural images and private security.
Abstract
Results indicate that, despite its ubiquity, private security evoked no agreed-upon public image or stereotype. It was a seen, but largely unnoticed form of policing, although respondents had noticed an increase in the number of locations employing private security and the number of personnel. A substantial proportion of the sample recognized that overt and covert surveillance is the fundamental strategy of private security. Most were able to identify readily situations in which private data and intelligence systems operate to meet security objectives. Despite this, respondents failed to distinguish private security objectives of protecting property and profits from police objectives of crime control. While feeling private security personnel had few powers in their own right, respondents did see them exercising considerable powers as agents of property owners or corporate authorities. Respondents distinguished between corporate and individual victims in considering the authority to use force in the protection of property, feeling that the use of physical force generally was more appropriate when exercised by the individual victim protecting his property. Finally, while respondents were relatively uninformed about formal channels for making complaints against private security personnel, they preferred private to public channels. 8 references.