ABSTRACT
There has been a considerable increase in the academic study of policing in recent years, which has been reflected in a corresponding growth in academic research, academic courses and publications. This increasing interest in policing, however, has not focused on the process of policing in its entirety. Rather, there has been a preoccupation with the public policing and a lack of concern with the other bodies that are engaged in policing. A cursory glance at the literature on policing, therefore, might lead one to conclude there is only one organisation engaged in policing: the public police. In recent years, however, there has been a growing realisation that, to explore policing fully, one has to investigate a much wider range of agents.
