International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 120

International Journal on Criminology
existed or no longer exist. Thus, private security precedes public security—less
visibly in western countries, particularly in France, where the recent nationalization
of security has been strong and marked—responding to an essential need for security
and transcending differences in cultures and civilizations. The UNODC report reveals
this cultural consensus in the matter of private security: “The United Arab Emirates
observed that the role of civilian private police was similar in many respects to that
in European countries, Canada, the United States of America and Asian countries.
As the private sector had become more professionalized, it had started to take over
or share certain functions of the public police which had historically been solely in
the domain of the public police, such as the guarding of embassies, essential national
infrastructure and dealing with traffic accidents, management and investigations, thus
allowing the public police to focus on matters of higher priority.” 9
Thus, at the international level, the scope of domestic private security is
similar in its broad outlines: “The main role and tasks performed by those civilian
private security services included tasks involving the physical and electronic
surveillance and protection of natural and juridical persons and goods and the
transport of goods mandated by private persons. Several States [Argentina, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Philippines and Russian Federation] mentioned investigation or private
detective services as being part of their tasks. Furthermore, a number of States
[Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Jamaica, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco and
Switzerland] indicated that private security services performed the tasks of securing
order, dealing with crowd security at public events, such as fairs and sport events, and
a few States [Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland]
also mentioned the tasks of airport and public transport security. Some States [Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Canada, Monaco and Norway] mentioned the existence of internal
security services of private entities, as a part of civilian private security services.” 10
As for Europe, “this sector comprises a large range of activities, including
surveillance of personal assets and property, cash-in-transit, personal protection,
access control and designing, installing and alarm systems management.” 11 Also
added to the list are dog-handling activities, private research, and security at ports
and airports (with some divergences in the latter). The final sector affected by
privatization in Europe is the armed protection of ships in extraterritorial areas. Noted
among the specific activities in one European country or another are transportation of
detainees (which remains rare), monitoring of detention centers, and private security
on horseback.
9
Ibid., 6.
10
Ibid., 4. France does not appear among the respondants as it had not at the time furnished UNODC
with its answers..
11
INHESJ/CoESS, op. cit., 19.
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