The Relationship Between Police and Private
Security:
Models and Future Directions
Rick Sarre and Tim Prenzler
Associate Professor Rick Sarre, School of International Business, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide South Australia
5001 rick.sarre@unisa.edu.au
Dr Tim Prenzler, School of Criminology, Griffith University, Queensland 4111, Australia
T.Prenzler@mailbox.gu.edu.au
Abstract and conclusion from
the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 24(1)
forthcoming 2000
full paper available from the Journal.
Abstract
This is a theory and policy paper designed to facilitate debate about the emerging and
evolving relationship between the public and private policing sectors. The so-called
pluralization of policing is gathering momentum. New models are required that take into
account the blurring of what have been conventionally considered parallel systems, with
private security as very much the “lesser” or junior entity. The paper introduces a number of
Australian examples into the debate, and develops a set of descriptive models to account for,
and explain, the main types of existing and emerging relationships. The paper then presents
a prescriptive model to support the view that caution should temper any push towards a
totally symbiotic cooperation between public and private policing. The best relationship for
the future, it concludes, may be one that maintains a basic separation of powers, with some
operational cooperation only where it is deemed essential and where oversight can be
provided by executive-level standing committees.
Introduction
The trend towards privatization of modern policing is now firmly entrenched. What
has happened in many countries is that the private sector service has expanded to a point
where the number of operatives and financial turnover now greatly exceeds that of the static
or slightly increasing turnovers of the public sector entities.
The United States represents one of the more extreme cases of this transition (Nalla
1998; Sklansky 1999:1222ff). The ground-breaking Hallcrest Report estimated that, in terms
of expenditure, the point of equilibrium between private security and police in the United
States was reached in 1977 (Cunningham and Taylor 1985)1. The private sector then
continued to outpace the public sector to a point where the second Hallcrest Report later
anticipated that the ratio would reach about 3:1 by the year 2000 (Cunningham, Strauchs and
van Meter 1990). A changing of the guard of such dramatic proportions appears to be a
feature of policing in English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom (Jones and
Newburn 1998:54; Johnston 1992a), Canada (Shearing and Stenning 1983a), and Australia
(Sarre and Prenzler 1999). In Europe, the change seems to have been less dramatic but
substantial nonetheless (de Waard 1993).
This growth in private security has been interpreted as reflecting an adaptive strategy
in mixed market economies where government provision of services has not kept pace with
public perceptions of an increased crime threat (Johnson 1992b). It might be argued that
demand has been generated by suppliers of security services who create an image of threat,
and by media outlets “selling” fear by generating crime stories that are out of proportion with
reality. However, this argument does not provide a complete explanation, given objective
indicators of rising crime rates, at least from the 1960s through to the 1980s (Kennedy 1995).
The demand may also, one could argue, have been influenced by public disillusionment with
traditional policing, which has been exposed from time to time to charges of corruption,
neglect of victims, and overzealousness (Forst and Manning 1999:20-33). Generally
speaking, there is an apparent acceptance of the legitimacy of private security, together with
an understanding of the limitations of public police and government budgets (Morley and
Fong 1995), perhaps as part of a trend towards more conservative governments seeking to
reduce their role in public life.
This paper focuses on private policing, but it should be noted that the general trend
outlined above extends to forms of “corporatization” or “self-provision” of security by public
sector organizations. Virtually every government department, and other government-based
service such as universities and hospitals, has some form of in-house or managed contract
security to guard property and people, and to detect and prevent fraud and other crimes. This
sector may account for up to one-third of “nonpolice security” (Prenzler and Sarre 1998).
Nonetheless, the private sector appears firmly established as the dominant provider of
security and patrolling services currently in the United States, the United Kingdom and
Australia, if not elsewhere2.
1
The report concluded that different roles, perceived status differentials and lack of knowledge prohibited effective
cooperation and interaction between public and private policing.
2 Private security clearly dominates the Australian landscape in terms of crime containment. While police dominate in terms
of frontline emergency response, and while being able to lay claim to some clear social benefit in dealing with law-and-order
crises, police cannot assume that they provide the key force in deterring crime (Sarre 1997). Police claim kudos from high
2
Policing has not undergone these radical changes without experiencing a strain on
existing arrangements. The lines of delineation are quite blurred. As a result, a number of
questions must be explored. How has the rising importance of private security affected the
public operation, and vice versa? What is the relationship between the personnel associated
with the various forms of policing? Are the uncertainties in the relationship hampering the
task of crime control and crime prevention? While there is no shortage of research into the
dilemmas associated with the relationship between public and private policing over the last
twenty-five years (e.g., Marx 1987; Nalla and Newman 1990; Shearing 1997), there has been
little attempt to build descriptive and prescriptive models from the range of possible
relationships. This paper is designed to fill this gap in the literature, using Australian
examples to assist in the task of modelbuilding.
The paper emphasizes that no one model of police-security relations can be entirely
explanatory. The difficulty is that relationships change constantly, and depend upon the
nature of the task to be performed. At one moment the two sectors may be aloof; at the next,
they may work together effectively and harmoniously. Suspicions and acrimony surface, only
to subside quickly. At a minimum, though, it must be recognized that the two sectors
inevitably cross each other’s paths due to the blurring of distinctions between private and
public areas, and because of the movement of offenders and targets across often intangible
borders (Johnston 1999).
It is reasonable, therefore, to argue that the points of overlap should be regulated, at
the very least to stop misconduct and waste, but also to maximize potential public benefits.
The precise mechanisms and limits of this issue need further analysis and clarification in
theory and policy. However, there is currently a window of opportunity for all participants to
see beyond a threatening situation to an opportunity for better and clearer cooperation, so
long as the intersections are well theorized and better regulated. For while there are reasons
to applaud an evolutionary merging of public and private policing, for example, to overcome
“the inertia that has characterised the criminal justice system for so long” (Matthews
1989:21), there are also good reasons to exhibit caution in advancing total cooperation. Apart
from the potential for corrupt relations, especially where moonlighting is permitted, there is
an inherent conflict between the principles on which public policing and private security
personnel operate. While police have a democratic duty to provide protection and law
enforcement universally, or at least on the basis of the greatest need, private security usually
focuses on supplying risk protection selectively based on financial incentive. While in some
cases where private security takes on a universalistic aspect, such as security for shopping
centers or sporting events or at the behest of local government, service remains commercial
and partial. Police independence and impartiality may be potentially compromised in
favoring some security services and their customers over others when engaging in joint
ventures. Other sticking points include training disparities, conflicts over ownership of
successes and failures, differing abilities to assist victims, alarm monitoring frustrations and
poor information sharing. The road ahead may be paved with good intentions, but contains
many potholes.
This critique, thus, is sceptical of striving for a totally symbiotic tie between police
and private security, and lends qualified support to providing complementary services. Some
profile prosecutions  in murder cases, for example  but for most other crimes, especially property crimes, their efforts to
prosecute offenders provide very little deterrence.
3
important modifications apply nonetheless. The Regulated Intersections Model allows both
providers more equal status with regard to blurred and differing contributions to crime
control and main areas of operation. The model insists that formal and ongoing cooperation
should be established at appropriate levels, and subjected to clear protocols. This will have
the desired effect of preventing conflict and, at the same time, maximizing control of crime.
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