Introduction

Lesson Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to emphasize that at the core of the private security industry is a growing business enterprise. By reviewing the nature and scope of the industry, students should grasp the magnitude of the security responsibilities parlayed to private corporations from the public sector. This transfer of responsibilities from public to private has resulted in the private sector being the primary security provider in the United States. As such, there has been a push to professionalize the industry through licensing, regulation, more stringent hiring practices, and better training practices. Each of these approached is reviewed in this lesson. Besides reviewing these standards, the lesson also examines the major security corporations

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Understand the magnitude of the past and future growth of private security;

Articulate some reasons for the growth in private security;

Differentiate the disparate approaches used by public and private policing;

Understand the various approaches being used to raise private security standards.