Some Question the Granting of Police Power to Security Firms
Private firms with outright police powers have been proliferating in some places -- and trying to expand their terrain. The "company police agencies," as businesses such as Capitol Special Police are called here, are lobbying the state legislature to broaden their jurisdiction...
Private security guards have outnumbered police officers since the 1980s....What is new is that police forces...are increasingly turning to private companies for help. Moreover, private-sector security is expanding into spheres -- complex criminal investigations and patrols of downtown districts and residential neighborhoods -- that used to be the province of law enforcement agencies alone.
The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States...
"It's basically, the government provides a certain base level. If you want more than that, you pay for it yourself." (says Thomas M. Seamon, a former deputy police commissioner for Philadelphia who is president of Hallcrest Systems Inc., a leading security consultant)
story | WashPost via Unknown News
~More Banana Republican reform.
Posted by Stubbornson at January 8, 2007 01:36 PM