In the past, communities in the US heavily relied on public policing for safety and fighting crimes. However, in recent years, the private policing/security industry has grown substantially because of various reasons, a trend that seems to be impacting many communities in the US (Scripps News, 2022). Some of these factors contributing to this trend include an increasingly threatening environment, distrust concerns in public police services, and technology advancements in private security sectors. Generally, the private policing/security industry has always had an impact on its communities. However, these impacts have become more pronounced with the rapid growth of private policing/security.
One impact is that private policing/security is become a source of income for many people in communities. With the growth of private policing, more people are being employed as private officers or security guards. The industry is currently attracting many people who were once unemployed making it one of the major sources of income in many communities. Private policing/security is also assisting in reducing crime rates in many communities. Staffing and budget issues have made it extremely difficult for public police to effectively do their jobs and reduce crime rates. As a result, some community members are becoming heavily reliant on private policing/security for safety and other services, which in turn positively impacts crime rates.
Unlike public police organizations, private police organizations tend to be more proactive, which is necessary in contemporary communities for reducing crime rates (Walker & Katz, 2010). Also, private policing/security, especially the growth of this industry, eases the pressure of public policing to work with little resources. This is because some of the specialized services that offered public policing to certain entities, such as corporate security, event security, and neighborhood patrols, are now mostly being offered by private policing/security (FOX 13 Seattle, 2022). As a result, public policing has more opportunity to focus on broader law enforcement tasks resulting in better services.
Private policing/security impacts public policing as it creates more room for collaboration and cooperation in the field of law enforcement. The growth of private policing increases opportunities for collaboration and cooperation on various initiatives such as intelligence sharing and crime prevention programs. Such collaboration and cooperation opportunities positively impact the performance and results of public police. However, for such benefits to be realized, certain obstacles would need to be addressed. For example, there are currently cooperation issues between private and public police related to consequences of beliefs, attitudes, respect, and contradiction with crime-fighting approaches.
Additionally, other areas of the Criminal Justice System are being affected by the growth of private policing/security. For example, public police officers have raised concerns that private officers do not care about prosecuting suspects or criminals. This ultimately may interfere with the ability of courts to effectively prosecute and sentence offenders since private officers might be less cooperative with in such tasks. Policymakers in the Criminal Justice System are also being affected by the growth of the private policing industry. Currently, the private policing industry is less regulated since few federal, state, or local laws guide it (Walker & Katz, 2010). As this industry grows and private police officers become more involved in the tasks that were initially performed by public police, policymakers in the Criminal Justice System will need to develop and implement more laws to guide the private policing industry.
References
Scripps News. (2022, June 4). Why U.S. Cities being patrolled by private police forces (in the loop) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ot9shms- kxI
FOX 13 Seattle. (2022, March 14). The spotlight: Business of private security in Seattle in booming [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Ouu4YOB3cpA
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2010). The Police in America: An Introduction. McGraw-Hill Education.
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