ABSTRACT
Whereas the previous chapter considered the structure of the private security sector, the present one is concerned with its activities, the range of which is considerable: static guarding, mobile patrol, cash-intransit, wage processing, undercover surveillance, guarding services, VIP protection, private investigation, risk management, specialized fraud investigation, consultative work related to industrial and domestic security, and so on. Moreover, the list of activities is growing. In the USA police forces have already contracted out a wide range of tasks to the industry: parking enforcement, traffic control, prisoner transfer, court security, non-injury accident investigation, special events policing, prison security, and crime prevention services. Indeed, it seems that there is neither a limit to the types of duties undertaken by private personnel (e.g. Scarborough Council’s employment of uniformed guards to deter potential suicides from jumping off the local bridge which has become a suicide blackspot) nor to the industry’s capacity to adapt to new situations (e.g. Securicor’s ‘Community Link’ vans, which collect poll tax on behalf of local authorities from willing payees-as opposed to the private bailiffs employed by some local authorities to deal with recalcitrants).
