Private Policing
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Private Policing by M. Button Cullompton: Willan (2002) ISBN 1 903240 52 2 (pbk), 1 903240 53 0 (hbk) (208 pages, £16.99 pbk, £40.00 hbk)
Reviewed by Lesley Noaks Mark Button’s timely text reflects the growing acknowledgement of the operation in the UK of an extended family of policing. Those serving to maintain social control and prevent crime currently represent a diverse range of organisations, from the public police through to autonomous (and often small-scale) independent groups. In an era of increasing pluralisation of policing, Button maps out the key players, including: the traditional public police; so called hybrid policing groups (such as the British Transport Police and H.M Customs and Excise); private security; and voluntary organisations. Drawing on an extensive knowledge of private policing he seeks to go beyond a superficial understanding of relations within the network of policing, and explores the potential for joined-up thinking that is suggested by the term ‘extended family’. He uses such knowledge to highlight the fragmentation of service delivery, something which he suggests has occurred historically, rather than being a recent phenomenon. Rather than providing a coordinated service, the disparate groups performing a policing function in the UK typically work in a disjointed and fragmented manner, with limited means of achieving coordination. Having reflectively defined the terms ‘policing’ and ‘private’ the author draws on his own experience and on the literature to provide a taxonomy for the broad range of organisations and agents involved in UK-based policing. In so doing he reviews the key classifications of policing provided by other scholars working in this area. He then proceeds to review the context of developments in private policing, in particular recent debates relating to an apparent weakening of the nation state. Such an effect is linked to the increasing fragmentation of policing on the national, international and global stage. Contemporary society’s heightened preoccupation with risk is also addressed as a key factor underpinning the increased demand for private security solutions. Chapter Two, entitled ‘Explaining Private Policing’ reviews the theories that have been put forward to account for the contemporary growth in private policing. Button’s focus is particularly on fiscal constraint theory and the pluralist or structuralist accounts. He concludes that the liberal democratic form of fiscal constraint theory currently dominates strategic thinking and policy on policing in both the UK and US. In the face of perceptions of a growing crime problem, the public police increasingly find themselves facing a demand for services that they are unable to meet. Button argues that in such a climate the public police are increasingly willing to see private security ‘as a resource that should be developed and improved, with active partnerships being encouraged between the public and private sectors’ (page 31). He goes on to highlight the issues of accountability and civil liberties which a
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