Home Contests, Competitions and Partnerships Relationships in Transition 2002

Contests, Competitions and Partnerships

Relationships in Transition

2002

The Governance of Policing and Security

Within the framework of its "Communities Project," the Law Commission of Canada is sponsoring research that explores the implications and impacts, at the community level, of the emerging relationship between public and private police. This research examines the burgeoning security networks that the private security industry and the public police are developing to provide security in shopping centres, airports, recreation complexes, downtown shopping districts and other "mass private places", as well as on public streets in urban entertainment districts.

Less well documented are the less visible aspects of private security. Alongside street patrols and security guards in shopping centres, for example there exists a very different side of the industry. The "high end" security industry is a mix of "in-house" or "for hire" forensic accountants, investigators, consultants, loss prevention specialists and computer programmers who engage in security work for, among others, banks, credit bureaus, insurance companies, retail outlets, stock exchanges and other private corporations as well as for government organizations.

This year's theme seeks to support empirically based research that explores the high-end security industry, either "in-house", "for hire", public or private.