Private security and the demand for protection in contemporary britain

Abstract

Against a backdrop of uncertainty created by an escalating and unmet public demand for police protection, and the reemergence of unregulated commercial security, this paper has three aims. First, it outlines the developments in security provision currently unfolding in Britain and reviews some of the responses that have been made. It then develops a critique of recent suggestions that private security is best countered by introducing novel ways of meeting the public demand for a visible police patrol presence. Finally, it proffers an alternative way of responding to the commodification of security, one suggesting that the concept of private security is in fact an oxymoron.