The Private Security And Public Security - 1827 Words

The private security industry today plays a primary role in ensuring that citizens of the United States and the entire world are kept safe from criminal activities perpetrated by outlaws. This sector has grown rapidly over the past few centuries to provide more services than it did before. The line between what the private and public security can do and what cannot have been blurred greatly. The former has gone into the domain that was once reserved for the government and it has shown that it can compete to cater to the needs of its clients. Previously, the private sector was more involved in the protection of individuals and institutional properties. The employees of private security were hired as guards and were stationed outside banks,†¦show more content†¦Allan Pinkerton, who came to the country in 1843, is regarded as one of the industry s founding fathers. By 1950, he had managed to form the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which had its base in Chicago. The compan y had a steady rise and soon became the largest provider of private security services. The company managed to amass a wealth of corporate and private customers including the railroad that had been dealing with a great menace of robbers for a long time. At this time, due to lack of proper equipment, the local governments were unable to halt the activities of these criminals who terrorized the railroads as well as its passengers, relieving them of their property. It was upon the victims of the robberies to pursue the matter further in collaboration with their agents. This was how Pinkerton was able to break through and later on increase demand for its services. The duties of the early PS companies went beyond capturing of criminals. They also performed tasks now undertaken by the federal and state government. These included manning the railroads and the cargos, looking into crimes and offering advice to banks, and other enterprises that were prone to attacks and vandalism by the criminals (Cunningham et al., 1990). There was a short disruption in the growth of the privately owned security firms when the public sector finally took responsibility for most of these