Punishment vs. Rehabilitation

Comparing and Contrasting the Roles & Responsibilities of Public & Private Policing

CJA Survey of Justice and Security
                            By: TaShauna D. Hayes
                            Prof. Nancy Arce-Laporte















For years, public police have “walked the beat” and protected our streets from criminal activity. However, with an ever changing society, policing, as a whole, is evolving to combat the never ending battle on crime. Public and private policing have many similarities, as well as differences and the distinction between public and private police are often blurred. Private police look and behave like public police and describing their function often involves a comparison of the activities and responsibilities of the two. Despite the differences, public and private police tend to mirror each other to a certain extent.
The increase of private policing has been in response to many changes in society such as the increase of "mass private property" in the form of large shopping complexes, cinemas, large retail stores and large compound style housing estates or gated communities. These require constant surveillance for the safety of shoppers and residents. In fact, adequate security has become one of those value-added extras that attract customers and residents. Technological advances, such as high-tech video surveillance cameras, computers, mobile phones, and satellites have increased the need an increase of security personnel for monitoring, investigating and analyzing.
Private policing has been described in many different ways such as, policing activity of crime prevention; detection and apprehension carried out by private organizations or agents for commercial purpose. It is described to include those people who work for a security company or are employed by an individual or firm to carry out security work, crowd control or private investigations. Private policing is provided by a private individual or... [continues]

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