International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 119

Private Security on a Global Level
At the European level, the knowledge approach is different in that its source
is a federation of national business organizations—the CoESS. This organization
analyzes at regular intervals the economic and legal environment for private security
in the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as 7 other states in the region
(Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, and Turkey),
comprising a total of 34 states. The latest statistical comparisons date from 2013,
when the economic and social statistics, as well as the activities and prerogatives of
private security for each state were reviewed. 5
This approach to the collection and comparison of knowledge by the CoESS
is clearly aimed at encouraging a move to adopt pan-European regulation of private
security: “Any effective European approach must start at the national level, which
is to say with the member states. We need to identify, among the countries of the
European Union, the regulations which work, in other words those which establish a
strict framework guaranteeing the professionalism and quality of our services while
not otherwise restricting their development. The result will be the development of a
European legislative framework that is balanced, harmonized, effective, and favorable
for the development of the private security industry.” 6
These two sources thus both offer comparisons aimed at convergence and
harmonization, but on different scales, and thus with different degrees of precision
and even in some sense working at cross-purposes—the European analysis tends to
shine light on divergences, which in reality are fewer than at the global level, while the
UN’s analysis tends to show convergences, which remain fewer than at the European
level. 7
II. In the Parameters, Prerogatives and Employment of Domestic Private Security
There Is Convergence—Up to a Point
The first objective convergence is that private security exists on all continents,
from South America to Asia, passing through Europe, as is indicated by the UNODC
expert group: “The majority of member states questioned have acknowledged the
existence of civil private security services within their borders.” 8
Beyond this geographical observation, the existence of private security seems
also to be independent of a state’s political regime and its level of democratization—
it existed, for example, in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Most of all, private security
has an even greater presence in countries where security and public order have never
5
CoESS, CoESS Facts & Figures 2013, 2013, 225 pages (not published, contrary to data from 2011).
6
Pissens, Marc (Chairman of the CoESS). “The European Security Landscape of the Future”. cit. in
INHESJ / CoESS, Private Security and Its Role in European Security. White Paper (Paris: 2008), 10.
7
“EU countries take a varied approach […]. There is no quantitative development model available,
given the wide range of statutory provisions adopted.” (INHESJ / CoESS, Private Security and Its
Role in European Security. White Paper. Paris, 2008. p. 21).
8
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, op. cit., 4.
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