The analysis revealed that the origins of contemporary American public police and private policing practices can be traced to several theoretical features of 18th and 19th century Marxian, classical, and neoclassical political economy. The author illustrates how a public goods theoretical perspective, in combination with previously identified typologies of police officer job functions (Wilson 1968), is better able to illustrate the current political and economically defined State police practices relative to private policing arrangements. Public goods theories address the questions of when and where resources should be public and who should bear the costs. The analysis suggests that politically defined public goods like law enforcement remain a strong State or government property yet are widely considered economic market failures. On the other hand, economically defined public goods, like order maintenance, function in the realm of crime prevention and are not considered market failures. The author thus concludes that the public monopoly of State supported police should be largely rejected. Research methodology involved a review of non-traditional public police history that included social, political, and economic sources. Future research should examine the increasing use of private sector themes such as “customer” and “market” among public sector police services. Figure, references