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View Full Version : Rise of Private Security Is Citizen Response to Declining Police Service



Chris
01-16-2014, 08:25 PM
An argument for private security...

Rise of Private Security Is Citizen Response to Declining Police Service (http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=4846)


In the San Francisco Bay Area, residents are stepping up efforts to hire private security companies. This concerns some people, but residents claim private security is necessary to maintain safety in their neighborhoods. Oakland residents have a strong case.

In 2010, the Oakland Police Department announced it would stop responding to 44 crimes, including grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft, extortion and vandalism. The service cutbacks were blamed on the layoff of 80 officers, which city officials said were no longer affordable.

With police failing to respond to crimes and crime rates rising, the number of Oakland neighborhoods relying on private security has skyrocketed. Bay Alarm, the largest security company in Oakland, has nearly doubled its business in the past year. It services many neighborhoods in Oakland, including Montclair, Redwood Heights and Rockridge.

Even Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s neighborhood, Oakmore, hired private patrols after a string of daytime break-ins. And in Rockridge, casual carpoolers waiting for rides to work were robbed at gunpoint in September. Neighborhood residents quickly raised $21,000 on the crowd-funding website CrowdTilt to hire private patrols from VMA Security Group.

Customers typically pay about $20 to $30 a month for a package of services that can include patrols, camera surveillance, vacation checks and escorts. The business model is the old-fashioned beat cop: a visible presence who knows the neighborhood, recognizes when something is wrong and provides immediate customer service. The Oakland PD and academic studies confirm private security cuts crime.

As shown in the award-winning, Independent Institute book by Bruce Benson, To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, a private security company must provide high-quality service or it risks losing a contract.

The same is not true for police departments since taxpayers are forced to fund police regardless of service quality....

Alyosha
01-17-2014, 10:39 AM
Codename Section and Ethereal

Good luck, boys! :)

Chris
01-17-2014, 10:59 AM
I was thinking of them when i posted this. They must be busy, securing. :-)

Peter1469
01-17-2014, 04:26 PM
As long as they are regulated and professional. Prior to 9-11 there was an Army Lawyer law review article advocating for the UN to registrar and regulated private military companies to do all the peace keeping / humanitarian work than most nations find to fall outside of their national security interests (at least so far as their own soldiers blood goes).