In recent years, private protection organizations have come more and more to supply night protection services, total security systems, bodyguard services, and a host of other protective services. In a number of countries, among them England, West Germany, and Sweden, private police officers have become more numerous than regular police. Many countries (France, England, Switzerland) have no laws controlling the protection business. In contrast, Sweden has initiated certain controls on the security industry to protect consumers and to prevent private security officers from becoming unofficial policemen. Although the Netherlands have a law banning quasi-police groups which was originally directed against the Nazis, the law is seldom invoked, and has little bearing on the modern protection agencies. In fact, one of the principal problems is the need to draw a line between police and protection agency tasks. The problem is particularly difficult because the role of the police has become more technical, more military, and more removed from the general public at a time when, paradoxically, the demands from the general public are for more police social services. Many of the protection agencies have taken over the simple guard duties which overburden police time and personnel resources. The danger exists, however, that the protection agencies will expand their activities beyond these simple duties to activities which may interfere with the citizens' rights. With the growth of protection services, many thefts in businesses and many shoplifting cases are being settled entirely outside the criminal justice system without police knowledge of the offense. Furthermore, the use of firearms and uniforms by private security police may confuse and endanger the public. Clearly the trend is toward weakening the State's monopoly on legitimate force and returning to crime prevention on the private level. The question is whether private police forces unfettered by legal controls are desirable in the Netherlands or elsewhere. Notes are supplied.