ABSTRACT
While the private security industry has received increased interest from both academics and policy-makers in recent years, it is still, however, a comparatively under-researched area (Reiner 2000a). This chapter, therefore, explores the growing role of the private security industry in policing. It begins by assessing the size of the industry and moves on to examine in more detail the activities of private security organisations involved in policing. It uses the examples of public order and investigative policing to illustrate this growth of private security firms. Before these issues are considered, however, it is important to establish what is meant by the term private security industry, as this term is open to very different interpretations and definitions.
