Private Sector Security

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Private sector security personnel on average out-number public law enforcement two-to-one, yet public law enforcement receives on average 720 hours of basic entry level training, while private sector security personnel receive less than a fraction of that on average (Fischer, Halibozek, & Walters, 2013). Moreover, it is often widely accepted that private sector security is poorly trained and equipped, especially when compared to that of public law enforcement. It should be noted, that public law enforcement experienced a similar evolution of professionalization and was not always trained to the standards witnessed today. The evolution public law enforcement required the determination and actions of persons in academia, federal and state governments, public law enforcement, and the private sector working collectively over the last 160 plus years to produce the highly trained professional police departments we see today. Nevertheless, private sector security standards are …show more content…
Despite the attention since 9/11 regarding the education, training, and regulation of private sector security, it was only in 1991 that the first real effort at the federal level attempted to bring about improved standards. Former Vice President and senator Al Gore was one of the first individuals at the federal level to introduce legislation that proposed minimum training and education standards for the private security sector (Fischer, Halibozek, & Walters, 2013). Additionally, subsequent attempts followed in 1992 and 1993 by federal legislators to improve upon the Gore proposals, however, while each new piece of legislation added improvements to private security standards, the new regulations typically stopped at the federal level and fell