Private Policing

Private Policing examines the origins of private policing, its growth, and ways in which it has been defined and classified. The updated edition offers a more international discussion of private policing, including examples from around the world.

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The second edition of Private Policing details the substantial involvement of private agents and organisations involved in policing beyond the public police. It develops a taxonomy of policing and explores in depth each of the main categories, examining the degree of privateness, amongst several other issues. The main categories include the public police; hybrid policing such as state policing bodies, specialised police forces and non-governmental organisations; voluntary policing; and the private security industry.

This book explores how the public police and many other state bodies have significant degrees of privateness, from outright privatisation through to the serving of private interests. The book provides a theoretical framework for private policing, building upon the growing base of scholarship in this area. Fully revised, this new edition not only brings the old edition up to date with the substantial scholarship since 2002, but also provides more international context and several new chapters on: corporate security management, security officers, and private investigation. There is also a consideration of what the book calls the ‘new private security industry’ working largely in cyber-space.

Bringing together research from a wide range of projects the author has been involved with, along with the growing body of private policing scholarship, the book shows the substantial involvement of non-public police bodies in policing and highlights a wide range of issues for debate and further research. Private Policing is ideal reading for students of policing and security courses, academics with an interest in private policing and security, and practitioners from security and policing.