ABSTRACT
Security, in the sense of prevention of loss or injury, may be defined as ‘the protection of assets of all kinds against loss from theft, fire, fraud, criminal acts or other injurious sources’. ‘Property’ is sometimes substituted for ‘assets’ but the latter is better because it includes confidential information and trade secrets that are important to their owner. There are marginal activities that need some poetic licence to fit into any abbreviated definition, such as the provision of security professionals for crowd control at sporting events, pop concerts and the like, where the cost of special duty police has become prohibitive.
