home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- January 1990
-
-
- PUBLIC LAW ENFORCEMENT/PRIVATE SECURITY:
- A NEW PARTNERSHIP?
-
- By
-
- Terrence J. Mangan
- and
- Michael G. Shanahan
-
-
- As the industrialized nations of the modern world move
- deeper into a cultural/technological metamorphosis that has come
- to be known as ``the information society,'' institutions are
- being inevitably and significantly affected by the
- transformation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field
- of law enforcement.
-
- Since the late 1960s, American law enforcement has passed
- through major changes that are not only healthy but also
- irreversible. Changes over the past two decades, besides leading
- to dramatically higher salaries and benefits for law enforcement
- personnel, have produced law enforcement agency accreditation
- standards, the use of highly sophisticated technology, and
- probably most important of all, an air of professionalism. This
- professionalism is especially visible in the area of policy
- setting.
-
- Gone is the stereotype that police are the guarantors of the
- socioeconomic status quo. Today, the police are recognized as
- being artful practitioners on the leading edge of major social
- issues. As such, police are in the front-line delivery of public
- services associated with the mentally ill, the homeless, abused
- children, battered spouses, and victims of racial and religious
- intolerance.
-
- EVOLVING ISSUES
-
- Through this law enforcement metamorphosis, it is important
- to remember a basic premise of organizational ecology:
- Organizations are dependent upon and affected by changes and
- evolutions in other organizations in their immediate environment
- or sphere of influence. This is the case with law enforcement
- where private security has emerged as a major player in the
- safeguarding of Americans and their property.
-
- In the area of resources alone, the growth of private
- security has expanded from what was estimated in 1969 as less
- than 300,000 employees in an industry whose national product in
- the United States was calculated at $2.5 million (1) to an industry
- which has grown to an estimated $18 billion employing close to 2
- million people. This is twice the size of public law
- enforcement. Moreover, according to a 1984 survey of the
- National Institute of Justice, public law enforcement resources
- have remained relatively flat, with a significant percentage of
- law enforcement agencies showing an effective decline in
- personnel, despite growth rates in population and crime. (2)
-
- A number of complex and evolving related trends may be
- contributing factors in the explanation for the phenomenal growth
- of private security at a time when public law enforcement growth
- has stagnated. Such trends as taxpayer revolts, automation,
- transferral of functions, stagnant economic growth, terrorism,
- inner-city problems, financing of local services, and
- immigration/emigration readily come to mind. Regardless of the
- possible reasons, the fact remains that private security will
- continue to have an impact upon and implications for society, in
- general, and public law enforcement, in particular.
-
- Ironically, the emergence of the private security industry
- that now numerically and financially far exceeds its public
- counterpart occurred without much influence from or interaction
- with public police. In fact, until recently, there was a mixture
- of disdain and concern that the emergence of private security was
- threatening the professionalism of policing. Many officials
- complained that the absence of adequate private security
- standards was allowing the proponents of private security to
- confuse the citizenry that ``rent-a-cops'' were a better bargain
- than protective services provided through public law enforcement.
-
- Police have traditionally viewed private security employees
- as inadequately trained and ill-paid individuals who could not
- find other work but were nevertheless allowed to carry a gun.
- Furthermore, because these individuals looked and acted like
- police, there was alarm that the private security industry might
- even usurp important aspects of public law enforcement and erode
- key citizen contacts that bond police officer and citizen in a
- common alliance. Those fears have not been realized; however,
- this unfortunately widespread view, early on, did much to stifle
- potentially mutual and beneficial relationships between law
- enforcement and private security.
-
- While the 1960s were characterized as a period of
- indifference toward private security, and the 1970s as one of
- changing perceptions and some mistrust of the industry, the 1980s
- and 1990s will most likely be regarded as the era of
- collaboration and joint ventures between public law enforcement
- and private security. This is necessitated by the fact that
- individual and corporate citizens who are policed by public law
- enforcement are also increasingly becoming the clients of private
- security.
-
- SCOPE OF PRIVATE SECURITY DUTIES
-
- As pointed out in the 1984 results of a 30-month
- descriptive and exploratory research project of the private
- security industry, the scope of private security is constantly
- changing and goes far beyond the more traditional areas of
- ``turf'' of local law enforcement agencies. (3) Proprietary or
- corporate security encompasses such sophisticated and diverse
- concerns as assets protection, loss prevention, countermeasures
- for industrial espionage, drug testing in the work environment,
- extortion, product tampering, dignitary and facility protection,
- and communications security, to name a few examples.
-
- Contract or private security companies also provide guard
- and patrol services to business, industry and residential areas;
- develop, sell, lease, and monitor simple to sophisticated
- communications and alarms systems; provide investigative,
- intelligence, and bodyguard equipment and services among other
- services. Additionally, a significant amount of the
- investigations involving credit card theft and fraud, check
- cases, shoplifting, embezzlement, employee theft, computer
- hacking, and other criminal enterprises are carried out by
- private security. This ``de-policing'' trend has necessitated
- new efforts in cooperation between public and private entities,
- as well as the growth of new respect and understanding on the
- part of both.
-
- COOPERATIVE EFFORTS
-
- Evidence of this collaboration and cooperation between
- public law enforcement and private security is increasingly
- evident. On two occasions, public law enforcement/private
- security ``summits'' have been held in the northwestern United
- States, where the Boards of the American Society for Industrial
- Security (ASIS), the State Associations of Chiefs of Police
- (SACOP), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and heads of
- Federal, State, and local agencies met on a common agenda with
- legislators, academics, and other key players. Moreover, joint
- committees have been formed by IACP and ASIS to address common
- law enforcement protocols and guidelines. In many of these
- endeavors, leadership and coordination have been offered through
- the Federal Bureau of Investigation because these law enforcement
- and corporate concerns are both national and international in
- scope.
-
- Another cooperative effort is occurring in Washington State
- where an organization constituted of law enforcement and
- corporate executives, including key executives from both
- proprietary and contract security organizations, has been
- successful in a number of joint endeavors. The organization
- known as the Washington Law Enforcement Executive Forum is
- alternately chaired by executives from public law enforcement and
- private security. It has successfully introduced and fostered
- enactment of key legislation; established its own strategic
- planning annex, ethical protocols, and executive strategies
- projects; and has been generally a model for successful
- public-private sector efforts. Similar organizations modeled
- after this organization have been started in other States.
-
- Through efforts such as these, the stereotype of private
- security guards as underpaid, poorly educated, and untrained is
- joining that same, but outmoded, stereotype of police in the dust
- bin of history. Hopefully, both will be replaced by the vision
- of a growing partnership between police professionals and private
- security specialists in a highly technical and changing
- environment where the collaborative effort of both benefit the
- common good.
-
- A CHANGING OUTLOOK
-
- The progression toward a rapprochement between public law
- enforcement and private security will require work, trust,
- compromise, and resource investment of both parties before true
- partnerships materialize. Several areas involving thorny and
- fundamental value issues remain to be discussed and, hopefully,
- resolved. Paramount among these is whether the growth and
- expanding influence of private security constitute the emergence
- of a ``shadow'' criminal justice system. In other words, will
- the profit motive and loyalty to a company replace public service
- and accountability to a system of basic principles of law and
- fairness?
-
- Several studies have reported that the dynamics of the
- burgeoning private security system and how it interacts with and
- disposes of criminal activity have never been systematically
- explored or documented. (4) In fact, as Albert J. Reiss, Jr., of
- Yale University pointed out:
-
- ``The large majority of private security agencies do not
- have full legal power of arrest, yet they exercise enormous
- discretion over criminal matters that occur on private property.
- Despite this, almost nothing is known from systematic inquiry
- about how these private police exercise discretion over criminal
- matters.'' (5)
-
- As an illustration, employee theft prosecuted in public
- court might result in a conviction and concomitant sanctions. But
- handled in a corporate venue, the theft might warrant dismissal
- and debarment from future employment within that industry, all
- without benefit of the extensive due process safeguards of the
- criminal justice system. In other instances, it might serve the
- corporate image of the ``damaged'' institution to allow quiet
- resignation and nonreporting of a crime, or conversely, criminal
- prosecution if this option is believed to be in the best business
- interests of the company.
-
- It remains to be seen how arbitrary decisions such as these
- will impact long-term concepts and values of the traditional
- criminal justice system. As more areas of responsibilities are
- assumed by or transferred over to the area of private security
- through a combination of realpolitik, limited public resources,
- impatience with traditional systems, and growing corporate
- influence, the demand for more examination and discussion of
- these matters will grow.
-
- INFORMATION EXCHANGE
-
- Nonetheless, cooperation between public law enforcement and
- private security must continue and, if there is one area where
- public law enforcement and private security have worked
- cooperatively for joint advantage, it has been in the area of
- collection and dissemination of records. The ability of both
- public law enforcement and private security to amass large
- amounts of personal data about people's personal histories,
- employment records, etc., poses serious liability problems during
- an era that has seen severe restrictions placed on the use and
- release of such data.
-
- Recently, Illinois joined a number of States that now have
- statutes authorizing the release of criminal conviction data on a
- job-related basis to corporations. Although much more work needs
- to be done in this area, having defensible model legislation
- gives impetus to other States to aggressively pursue this course
- of action. Alternatively, in many States, thanks to cooperative
- law enforcement/private security initiatives, corporations are
- simply obtaining a release from applicants, submitting a
- fingerprint card, paying an established fee, and subsequently
- receiving a criminal history from the desired police agency.
- There has been no evidence of problems with these arrangements,
- and corporations that operate in multiple States have been
- willing to adjust their procedures to conform to applicable State
- laws.
-
- TARGETED AREAS FOR COOPERATION
-
- Reassuring signs that joint efforts are possible are
- appearing with broader scope and greater frequency. As an
- example, one of the more significant protocols that has been
- developed in recent years has been joint management of
- product-tampering threat cases. The public is not well served
- when valuable time and evidence are lost because jurisdictions
- and corporations do not know their specific roles relative to
- these violations. To address this, an initiative was launched by
- the Southland Corporation, in conjunction with the IACP Private
- Sector Liaison Committee, to draft a model protocol that could be
- distributed to every State, county, and local law enforcement
- agency in America.
-
- For the first time, private corporations, Federal agencies
- such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S.
- Department of Agriculture, and the FBI, and State and local
- agencies cooperated not only in the review of the draft protocols
- but also cooperated in adopting written directives relative to
- this issue. Since 1986, over 100,000 copies of this protocol
- have been circulated throughout the United States. They are in
- place in State police agencies, sheriffs' offices, police
- departments, as well as Federal and State law enforcement groups.
- Affected corporations are aware of the protocols, and a number of
- corporate security directors have carefully built appropriate
- procedures into their own internal operating procedures.
-
- Another example of emerging cooperation is in the area of
- drugs. Through the efforts of the State of Maryland and the
- chief of police for Baltimore County, a model protocol addressing
- the issue of drugs in the workplace has been circulated to law
- enforcement agencies and State chiefs associations. The purpose
- of the document is to make available to corporations, and
- especially the small business community, a straightforward
- pamphlet that has been reviewed by the Justice Department, the
- FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. This initiative,
- which began in the fall of 1989, promises to be similar to the
- effort which produced the product-tampering threat protocol and
- is an instrument through which companies and units of government
- can devise a ``Drugs in the Workplace'' procedure.
-
- Furthermore, there are hundreds of community-based programs
- that are directly benefiting community law enforcement efforts.
- Namely, Pizza Hut spends as much as $136 million a year
- encouraging young people to improve their reading skills through
- its ``Book It Program'' organized to reduce illiteracy.
- ``Operation Home Free,'' started by Trailways Bus Lines and
- continued by the Greyhound Corporation, allows juvenile runaways
- to return home at no cost. While efforts such as these are only
- tangentially associated with the public law enforcement and
- private security rapprochement, they are a harbinger of the
- commitment corporations are increasingly willing to make to help
- law enforcement and they will serve to strengthen developing
- public law enforcement and private security relationships.
-
- The commitment has even led to ``role reversals'' where
- public law enforcement is now learning from its private security
- counterparts. Effective business trends such as customer
- satisfaction, service orientation, subcontracting for services,
- specialization, joint ventures, and even advertising and public
- relations are being embraced by and changing the shape of public
- law enforcement in the United States. As an example of these
- role reversals, over 60 Fortune 500 companies make available
- their training programs to supervisors at the rank of sergeant
- through sheriff, chief, or superintendent. The program began
- modestly with such corporations as Unisys, General Telephone of
- California, and AT&T. Today, in 45 States, over 1,200 police
- managers annually receive tuition-free corporate training that
- would not otherwise be available through police academy budgets.
-
- CONCLUSION
-
- It is mutually incumbent upon both public law enforcement
- and private security to continue to establish and improve
- mechanisms at every level which will not only allow but
- encourage dialogue on common law enforcement concerns and
- challenges. As so aptly stated a few years ago:
-
- ``The exchanges between the policing institution and its
- societal surroundings help assure both its change and its
- stability for the functioning of the police organizations
- must be kept somewhat in tune with the environment in
- which it operates.'' (6)
-
- It is hoped that the growing mutual respect and cooperation,
- as evidenced by the initiatives outlined, are laying the
- groundwork for a future of effective law enforcement in a world
- that is growing increasingly complex and more demanding. Through
- these efforts the continuing public law enforcement/private
- security rapprochement will undoubtedly succeed.
-
- FOOTNOTES
-
- (1) Rand Report, 1972.
-
- (2) William C. Cunningham and Todd Taylor, ``A Preview of the
- Hallcrest Report: Security-Police Relationships,'' Security
- Management, June 1983.
-
- (3) William C. Cunningham and Todd Taylor, The Hallcrest
- Report: Private Security and Police in America (Portland:
- Chancellor Press, 1984).
-
- (4) Supra note 2.
-
- (5) Albert J. Reiss, Jr., ``Discretionary Justice,'' Handbook
- of Criminology, 1984, p. 681.
-
- (6) John P. Clarke and Richard Sykes, ``Determinants of Police
- Organization and Practice in a Modern Industrial Society,''
- Handbook of Criminology, 1984, p. 456.
-
-
-
- About the authors:
-
- Terrence J. Mangan is Chief of Police of the Spokane, WA
- Police Department. Co-author, Michael G. Shanahan, is
- Chief of Police, University of Washington Police Depart-
- ment, Seattle, WA.