NCJ Number
184283
Date Published
1999
Length
174 pages
Annotation
This sixth volume in the pro-and-con series on important public issues presents two authors' contrasting views of the significance of the emergence and growth of the privatization of policing.
Abstract
Peter Manning is suspicious and hostile toward economic theory and managerial practices. He believes that the economic issues of efficiency and effectiveness and, indeed, the overall "free market" paradigm are both inconsistent and harmful to the traditional police mandate, which, in his view, is rooted in coercion and violence and must be controlled by the state. Brian Forst presents a more moderate position and argues that neither public nor private policing should have or is likely to have a monopoly on law enforcement activities. Focusing on the public's need for security, Forst predicts an even more varied mix of public and private police activities than are currently available, pointing out that since wealthy communities and neighborhoods have always had the option of hiring and maintaining private police protection, it is in the poorer neighborhoods that there are likely to be changes in the type and quality of law enforcement. These changes may take the form of public subsidies to neighborhood organizations to hire private security, the formation of citizens' groups that serve voluntarily to protect the areas in which they live, or the hiring of security guards to protect commercial interests in poorer neighborhoods. A 342-item bibliography and a subject index