Relationship between Private and Public Police Essay

In the beginning before private security it was the responsibility of the public police to protected the society and property within their jurisdiction that public law enforcement served. In today’s society public police work hand and hand with private security on a regular basis, either in public or in private functions. Also in today’s society you see off duty cops working as a part-time security officer at a local retailer or safeguarding assets for a company. Certain cities have giving Security officers within certain jurisdiction, such as Boston the power to make arrest do to the lack of public officers availability. The major thing that has changed over time for both public and private security and public servants is the training they must go through before entering the streets or the property they are protecting. The training and education and public officer must get is very hard and they must pass the training and schooling to be hired within the department, it is more in depth compared to what a normal security officer must go through. Security officer now half to go through a lot more training then they use to they must be able to handle people and deal with people on a daily basis. The training for a security officer has really change over the years it’s not only getting a drug test and background check some security companies not do extensive training because of the public views the security. Companies have chosen to educate the security officer because of liability problems that have occurred and exist in the workplace as a result companies have trained professional individuals to work within private security. Large security companies have realized how important security officers are for the public and how important it is to have trained security officer and increasing level of professionalism within the security officer force to establish better contracts to compete with public law enforcement officers. Normally public officers receive there pay from tax payers and are part of unions that back officers up. With that said most officer are not held accountable for their actions compared to an individual private security  officer. On the other hand private security officer can also avoid more serious liability issues, such as law suit due to someone constitutional rights, and injuries that they may have cause by passing them off to the company they work for due to the companies policy. Over the recent years there has been major increases within the hiring of private security officer compared to using local public law officer. It is becoming a huge trend to hire local private security to protect CEOs, political figures, and celebrity figures. They are now using private security companies to be personal protection which are subcontracted out to these individual in need of security. They important people have hired these personal security guards to protected them and also there assets. The small business have also started hiring private security officers to protected them and their assets You use to see Local law enforcement patrolling private property or parking lots but now you have private security taking over those roles. You also have private security such as shopping malls, casinos, and even airports have hired private security officers to protected the business assets. This is not just happening with security guards you also have private investigators who have started taken over the local law enforcement role in investigating murders, rapes, and abductions. Due to not enough funding for public law enforcement, companies like Target have open up their own investigation center that investigate crimes with in there company without having local law enforcement do it for them. Private security companies can now investigate crimes side by side with the police department and also work longer on the case compared to the police department because of funding. Private investigators have been known to build cases against criminals that will support the laws case or it can work the other way and the defendant can hire a private investigator to support their case to prove there innocent. The relationship between the public police and the private security are becoming more positive in a really good way. People are noticing that there is not enough public police officer to protected all of the community so to  let private security take over some of the roles it helps public police do jobs they may actual need to do. Companies have noticed that it is better to have extra eyes watching over there companies. Criminals will also noticed that private security officer and police officer are now working together and are not conflicting with each other and will it will prevent criminals from doing criminal behavior. The only down side for police is the concern that private security officer will take over for local law enforcement and they will be pushed out which puts a negative impact on private security officer to a point where local police officers are upset because they have dedicated their lives to their training and sole propose of becoming a police officer. There is a conflict between public and private space, which in fact can influence the relationship between private security and public police. Police at any time can detain someone that is a threat to someone or can even question them after being apprehend. Private security on the other hand cannot employ any police powers and may only detain and arrest as a citizen. Also Public police must have probably cause to search someone, while private security is exempt from violation an individual 5th amendment rights. Reference Li, G. (2008). Private security and Public policing. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2008010/article/10730-eng.htm