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Can We All Get Along? A Study of Why Strained Relations Continue To Exist Between Sworn Law Enforcement and Private Security

NCJ Number
156374
Journal
Security Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1995) Pages: 85-92
Author(s)
H N Morley; R S Fong
Date Published
1995
Length
8 pages
Annotation
A questionnaire survey of the top law enforcement administrators and owners of private security companies in California sought to determine the basic causes of the dissension between sworn law enforcement and the private security profession, as well as possible corrective actions.
Abstract
Responses came from 135 law enforcement agencies and 88 private security company owners. These represented 68 percent of the 200 law enforcement agencies and 44 percent of the security companies selected randomly from the lists of all such organizations in the State. Results were strikingly similar to the three landmark studies and revealed that the schism today is as broad as it was nearly two decades ago. Law enforcement participants ranked training of security personnel as the greatest source of the problem, while security personnel noted both communication and training as the primary and secondary causes of their concern. The security company owners also had an overwhelmingly negative response to any legislation regulating their profession, despite findings that licensing and regulation have long been viewed as necessary to improving the strained relationship. Perhaps the most disturbing finding was that most participants had neither seen or heard of the three landmark studies; this lack of awareness may explain the repetitive nature of the recommendations on these issues during the last 23 years. Tables and 23 references