ABSTRACT
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 46 The Public-Private Dichotomy and Blurred Lines .......................................... 47
Public Police Objections to Private-Public Partnerships ........................... 48 Study Purpose ....................................................................................................... 49
A Developmental Model toward Public-Private Police Partnerships ...... 50 Denial ........................................................................................................... 50 Grudging Recognition and Denigration .................................................. 50 Competition and Open Hostility .............................................................. 50 Calls for More Controls ............................................................................. 51 Regulation .................................................................................................... 51 Active Partnership ...................................................................................... 51 Equal Partnership ....................................................................................... 51
Right-Wing Authoritarianism ....................................................................... 52 Method ................................................................................................................... 52
Participants ....................................................................................................... 52 Measures ........................................................................................................... 53
Demographic Queries ................................................................................ 53 Partnership Acceptance ............................................................................. 53 Appraisal of Private Policing ..................................................................... 54 Right-Wing Authoritarianism ................................................................... 54
Procedure .............................................................................................................. 54 Results .................................................................................................................... 55 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 57 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 59 References .............................................................................................................. 59
Abstract As the private-policing sector continues to grow, the willingness of public officers to form closer relationships with their private counterparts remains in doubt. In this study, a sample of 156 municipal police officers situated themselves on a continuum of public-private partnership acceptance, based on a model proposed by Stenning in 1989. Officers also provided judgments of their respect for the private police, the competence they attributed to them, and how adequate they believed their education and training to be. A measure of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) was used as a proxy for in-group-out-group sentiment to determine whether this was related to the appraisals. Results showed that respondents split into three relatively equal groups: (1) those who were simply unwilling to develop closer relations, (2) those who cited deficits in training and education as obstacles to closer relationships, and (3) those who were willing to work in partnerships. The ratings on the three appraisal measures reinforced just how poorly trained and regulated the private police were perceived to be. Authoritarianism was not correlated with the placement on the partnership continuum or with any of the appraisal measures. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the prospect of partnership building with a conclusion addressing the need for the government to assume greater responsibility for the professionalization of private policing.
