Protective Services, private security, surveillance

Growing Use Of Private Security

Businesses, homeowners and communities around the world are increasingly relying on private security rather than tax-supported police. Observers say the growth in private security is a reaction to the failure of government to cope with rising crime.

In 1970 there were 1.4 public police for each private security guard in the United States.

Now there are three private police for each public one, and in California the ratio is four to one.

And as early as 1978, General Motors alone had a private police force of 4,200 -- more than all but five American cities.

Today Americans spend about $90 billion a year on private security, but only $40 billion on police. Even the government spends more hiring private guards than it does paying for police forces.

The trend isn't confined to the United States.

In Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia there are roughly twice as many private guards as public police.

But in extremely lawless places such as Russia and South Africa, there are at least 10 times as many private-security guards as public police.

Observers say the growth in private-sector crime control hasn't come at the expense of police -- the ranks of government police have grown. But crime has grown faster. Police productivity may be contributing to the trend: police clear only about a fifth of reported crimes in the U.S.; in Britain it's one-fourth; and in Canada, one-sixth.

Source: "Welcome to the New World of Private Security," Economist, April 19, 1997.