Private police
[1] Additionally, the term can refer to an off-duty police officer while working for a private entity, providing security, or otherwise performing law enforcement-related services.
Security officers are regulated by the state, but generally do not have police powers, such as the ability to arrest on a warrant, or issue citations and summons for misdemeanor offenses.
These police officers swear an oath to the state or country (or both) they are commissioned in but are paid for by the private organization that hired them.
Security personnel can also take on auxiliary functions of police duties, such as administrative work, which constitutes a signification proportion of the workload of officers.
It has been argued that police, who cost more than private security guards, are overqualified for such auxiliary duties because of their extensive training.
One study found that outsourcing such functions to private contractors could reduce police forces’ operational expenditures by between 17% and 20% in the Canadian province of Quebec.
The same study cited similar measures in the UK, which led to reductions in both crime rates and public expenditures on police.
Many of the larger South African private security companies have expanded their operations into other countries in Southern Africa.
In South Africa, private companies that make use of guards are regulated by a statutory body, the Security Officers' Board.
In some cases, private police are sworn in as government employees in order to ensure compliance with the law, as in the Kalamazoo, Michigan-Charles Services contract, which lasted 31⁄2 years.
[12][example needed] In Great Britain, the police function was historically performed by private watchmen (existing from 1500 on), thief-takers, and so on.
In 1737, George II began paying some London and Middlesex watchmen with tax money, beginning the shift to government control.
The Macdaniel affair added further impetus for a publicly salaried police force that did not depend on rewards.
The cost of San Francisco's private patrol specials is $25–30/hour, compared to $58/hour for an off-duty police officer.
James F. Pastor addresses the disadvantages by analyzing a number of substantive legal and public policy issues which directly or indirectly relate to the provision of security services.
The use of private police, however, has particular appeal because property or business owners can directly contract for public safety services, thereby providing welcome relief for municipal budgets.
Finally, private police functions can be flexible, depending upon the financial, organizational, political, and situational circumstances of the client.
[21] Problems within the industry include the possibility of criminals setting up their own firms, misuse of surveillance devices, and strained relationships between the public and private police.
[22] Ultimately, some people see the potential for a “dual system” of policing—one for the wealthy and one for the poor—and others see the provision of private security as the primary protective resource in the contemporary United States.
[24] There are regulatory mechanisms for private police, specifically the commissioning bodies of those agencies (such as the state's POST board, etc.).
Additionally, people have the ability to file lawsuits more freely, as these officers are not protected by the sovereign immunity doctrine that defends municipal/governmental police personnel.
"[26] However, in many jurisdictions - particularly in the United States - private police agencies and or officers generally do have some form of statutory authority.
Patrick Tinsley writes:[27] Enforcement of law is a phenomenon that admits of infinite degrees and permutations.
The jewelry store engages the services of manifold private protection outfits: it takes out an insurance policy on its gems, which are kept under a locked glass display case, which can only be opened by an employee, who is under the ever-vigilant eye of video monitoring equipment, and who watches the customers with the aid of convex mirrors, and keeps the store’s cash in a locked vault, which is in a back room, which is in turn locked at closing time, and the store’s alarm activated as the employees leave and the armed night watchmen arrive.
