Public Safety through Private Action: An economic assessment of BIDs, locks, and citizen cooperation

“Given the central role of private individuals and firms in determining the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, and the quality and availability of criminal opportunities, private actions arguably deserve a central role in the analysis of crime and crime prevention policy. But the leading scholarly commentaries on the crime drop during the 1990s have largely ignored the role of the private sector, as have policymakers. Among the potentially relevant trends: growing reporting rates (documented in this paper); the growing sophistication and use of alarms, monitoring equipment and locks; the considerable increase in the employment of private security guards; and the decline in the use of cash. Private actions of this sort have the potential to both reduce crime rates and reduce arrests and imprisonment. Well-designed regulations and programs can encourage effective private action.

One creative method to harness private action to cost-effective crime control is the creation of business improvement districts (BIDs). Our quasi-experimental analysis of Los Angeles BIDs demonstrates that the social benefits of BID expenditures on security are a large multiple (about 20) of the private expenditures. Creation and operation of effective BIDs requires a legal infrastructure that helps neighborhoods solve the collective action problem.”

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15877#fromrss

Private Police Articles from European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/crim/1999/00000007/00000002;jsessionid=18ksvruuofml0.alice

Powers and Accountability of Private Police

“Substantial growth in private policing has been documented in countries throughout the world, and the division of responsibilities for policing between public and private authorities has become increasingly blurred and contested during the last three decades. Because private policing is so frequently assessed on the basis of criteria established with respect to the public police, substantial myths have developed about the powers and accountability of private police; specifically, it is commonly asserted that private police have no significant power(s), and are essentially not accountable, in comparison with the public police. The author argues that such assertions misrepresent the very substantial coercive power of private police as well as the variety of mechanisms through which they may be held accountable, and also commonly exaggerate the effective accountability of the public police. The author concludes that a greater appreciation of the actual power and accountability of private police will provide an improved basis for the development of sound public policy with respect to both private and public policing, and with respect to appropriate relationships between private and public policing organisations.”

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t2h6032u55140514/

Private Security: Implications for Social Control

http://www.jstor.org/pss/800267

Private Security and Public Policing

http://www.amazon.com/Private-Security-Policing-Clarendon-Criminology/dp/0198265697/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added

Diversification of British policing: The citizen experience

“This paper considers how increasing privatisation of policing in the UK impacts on citizens in a residential community. It reports on an evaluation of the activities of a private security company and the perceptions of the local community of the impact and effectiveness of the scheme. It considers how the presence of the private guards influences community safety and individuals’ reported fear of crime. It also explores the extent to which the private company’s style of policing is to target particular individuals, thereby jeopardising individual rights and civil liberties. Finally, the paper discusses the extent to which the presence of the guards reinforces social exclusion at the community level.”

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=7B5055074F30675F1984F688D8D87B1F?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkhtml&contentId=872435

‘Household Security’: Private Policing and Vigilantism in Doncaster

“The extension of private security patrols into public spaces has increased considerably in recent years and both the government and the police service have indicated a willingness to seek ways to accommodate and regulate private security companies. This article presents the results of a study into the operation of one private security company in a working-class area in the North of England. It examines some of the difficulties that will be faced by the police, the formal agents of law and order in attempting to regulate private security firms and highlights the motivation of ordinary citizens faced by increasing fear of crime. At the same time it allows us to challenge some earlier assumptions about the nature of vigilantism and suggests a modification of Johnson’s 1996 definition.”

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119041599/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0