NCJ Number
83234
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1982) Pages: 35-41
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Panelists discuss the rationale and the ways for public and private police to assist one another in providing security for university campuses, businesses, and citizens.
Abstract
The increase in crime is paralleling a decrease in the resources available for public policing. Private security has expanded its personnel and services to fill many of the safety and security gaps that cannot be met by public police. Cooperation between public and private police can enhance the effectiveness of each for the public benefit. The campus police, which serve a cluster of six colleges in Claremont, Calif., have developed a cooperative relationship with the Claremont Police Department that involves cooperation in traffic control on the streets in the areas of the campuses, personnel training, equipment and facility use, crime prevention programs, and criminal investigations. As resources for public police have been cut, it has become cost-effective for public police to contract with private security companies to fulfill such responsibilities as traffic control, accident investigation, parking meter monitoring, and response to burglar alarms. In most cases the use of municipal police officers for private security work on their off hours does not have the approval of the private security industry nor public police departments. While there are potential conflicts of interest in such an arrangement, if effectively administered and controlled, it can provide supplementary income for police officers while benefiting businesses and citizens with professional police services in additional areas.