Privatisation and the Growth of Private Security Industry: A Study on Risk, Fear and Insecurity

Discuss how the process of privatisation can be seen as related to risk, fear and insecurity
using the example of the growth of the private security industry.
Introduction: Quite different meanings of the concept of privatization are present in different
societies. It needs to be noted that as compared with the privatization of other state in business,
the notion of privatizing criminal justice and security is much less ambitious in its scope and has
much more potential in symbolism. This can be particularly true regarding certain aspects of
criminal justice system like youth detention centers or private prisons. But in the field of
policing, traditionally a major role has been plagued by private interests. The private security
industry that has been broadly described as the industry that is devoted to preventing crime, is set
to grow significantly during the next decade. The reason behind this growth is that it will be
ensured by immutable social forces that this industry develops, probably more than any other
industry or field of employment.
Privatization refers to the act of transferring ownership of particular property or business
operations from a government organization to privately owned entity and also the transition of
ownership from publicly traded company to privately owned company.
To start with, along with other industrialized nations, Australia is shifting towards an information
society from an industrial society. More than 60,000 people in the Australia will be working with
information like programmers, clerks, accountants, insurance, lawyers, bankers etc. As a result of
this trend, significant implications are present for the private security industry (COAG, 2005). It
has been expected by the experts that industry is going to witness significant growth as more and
more organizations from the private and public sector will be hiring security firms for the

protection of their most valuable asset, which is information. Another related but generally
overlooked social trend is the fast pace of social change, which also needs to be mentioned.
Electronic data transfer, computers, genetic engineering and space satellites, all are created such
a world where conceptual space (that is increasingly connected by electronics and biology)
instead of physical space is becoming prevalent. As a result of these changes as well as related
social changes, will have a significant impact on the agenda related with the nature of work and
also the ways in which the members of society are going to relate with each other and to
authority (CRC, 2008).
For example, how can the police considers censoring the often ingenious but explicit
pornography that is present across the electronic mail systems like Viatel? Similarly police find it
difficult to keep pace with sophisticated computer hackers that breach, financial records on data
banks. Under these circumstances, the question arises, the police can be described as the most
suitable agency for investigating the theft of body parts for donor surgery. Such electronic and
genetic crimes will become common in near future (Centre for International Economics, 2007).
All the police forces have been trying to change in order to be the dynamic regions, but they
have to face a lot of obstacles that are common in any large bureaucratic organization. Some of
these obstacles include resistance to change by certain sections of bureaucracy, the size of the
organization and the rules related with recruiting that generally deny a rightful place to the
specialists in the hierarchy of the organization (Ferguson,et al., 2011).
In this way, a void exists, while dealing with the new types of crime. This file can be filled by
private security agencies and innovative public authorities, who are not going to be like them to
offer relatively favorable resolution for the persons having cutting-edge technology, for their
services. Another trend is related with the fear of crime and crime itself. At this point it needs to

be stated that the people in Australia are not overwhelmed by crime. It is true that there has been
a rise in certain offenses like car theft, breaking and entering offenses and serious assault
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). However, the murder rate in Australia has remained
relatively constant during the last 15 years. Irrespective of the crime trends in reality, the fear
related with crime, has outstripped the reality related with the growth of crime due to several
reasons (Australian Crime Commission, 2008a). However due to certain reasons like higher rate
of youth unemployment, drugs, and a significant rise in the number of weapons in the
community, it can be expected that property offenses including armed robbery, are going to
increase significantly in the future. The result is that public policy will be overstretched.
Consequently, there will be an increase in the demand from the private sector to take on the
responsibilities that the earlier the responsibilities of the police (Australian Institute of
Criminology, 2013).
However, it is unfortunate that the number of crime will be exaggerated by the public as well as
the private police in their efforts to achieve more state and corporate funds for security and
policing. This stress on exaggerating crime will be further increased as a result of opportunistic
political parties, who want to win votes on the issue of law and order (Allard and Prenzler,
2009).
At the same time, it is also significant to consider general social and economic trends. As these
trends have reinforced public spending cuts in community services and at the same time
maximized what can be called as “self-help” movements. The other generally speaking during
the last two decades, the expenditure is available to police forces have increased considerably in
reality (Button, 2012). However in the future, it is unlikely that the situation is going to continue.
As a result of the rising cost of policing and in view of the indefinite fiscal crisis faced by the