Privatization of the Police

Abstract

This paper deals with civilian private security in relation to public police. It first elaborates on the specific legal norms that govern public and private security personnel and shows that the rise of private security is not the outcome of privatization in the usual sense of the term. It proceeds to present some facts on private security, a large and fast-growing industry in many countries. The following section deals with the sources of the demand for private security and its impact on security. We show that this impact is conceptually different from that of public police in a constitutional rule of law state. Private security aims at achieving efficient levels of losses from crime. Public police aim at equal protection of citizens against crimes. The different objectives have different consequences on security and on the wealth distribution of citizens. Furthermore, private security usually does not create general deterrence. Also, deployment of security personnel generates crime diversion, which the public police take into consideration, whereas private security has no incentive to do so. We then elaborate on the diverging effects of private versus public security services on the rights of criminal suspects, on the rule of law, and on democratic accountability. The paper concludes with a review of empirical findings on the effectiveness of private security for reducing crime levels, which show significant effects.

Keywords: Private Security, Law and Economics

JEL Classification: H, K, L