Snowflakes or Good Pinches? - Private Security's Contribution to Modern Policing (From Maintenance of Order in Society, P 96-110, 1982, Rita Donelan, ed. - See NCJ-88674)

• NCJ Number: 88679
• Author(s): C D Shearing; P C Stenning
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Canada Ministry of Supply and Services
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

Private policing's emphasis on crime prevention and surveillance rather than the investigation of crimes and apprehension of offenders may suggest the effectiveness of such an approach for the public police.

Abstract

Whereas public police measure their effectiveness by clearance rates, the status of the criminal investigation branch, and the importance of 'good pinches' for a police officer's career, private police tend to measure their effectiveness by loss prevention. Private security focuses upon developing officer functions designed to prevent crime, notably the establishment of patterns of surveillance. Such surveillance not only involves strategic positioning to observe the commission of crimes but also monitoring the crime prevention functions or regular employees; e.g., Atlantic Richfield security has an evening patrol that checks security risks caused by employee negligence; when a particular negligence situation is observed, the officer leaves a form called a 'snowflake,' which describes the insecure condition found and calls it to the attention of the person responsible. Habitual violators are interviewed, and as a last resort, compliance is sought through the violator's department manager. The fear that private security systems will become abusive and intrusive because of poor control and restraint mechanisms does not appear warranted, and the patterns of prevention private security has set for itself could well be emulated by the public police. The conference discussion of the paper and 21 references are provided.