Extract
Private security's purchase: imaginings of a security patrol in a Canadian residential neighbourhood.
Introduction
The security guard, the "cop" in the "rent-a-cop" equation, is the object of habitual contempt due to inevitable comparison with the better-screened, trained, and remunerated police officer. Both have been the subjects of extensive study. But what of the "renter"? Why would one "rent" a "cop" who is held in such low regard? Despite sustained scholarly attention given to private security, and notwithstanding the discursive influence of the explanatory trope of "consumerism," how consumers imagine private security remains largely unexplored. To begin to remedy this neglect, this article explores consumers' understandings and knowledge of a private security (2) program in an affluent residential neighbourhood in an Ontario city. Borne of a contractual arrangement between a private security firm and individual homeowners, the program operates under private auspices using private providers (Bayley and Shearing 2001) and is the first of its kind in Canada. (3) Drawing primarily upon in-depth interviews with neighbourhood residents, in this exploratory study we investigate how this program emerged and how its integral facets and context are understood. Four key aspects are discussed: exclusivity, security, public and private patrols, and responsibility. In relation to these we then consider theoretical claims from the governmentality literature regarding "advanced liberal" notions of "governing through community" and "responsibilization" (see Rose 1999; O'Malley 2004: 72) and from the private security literature regarding assertions about the acceptance of the "free rider" (Noaks 2000) and commodified security's attractions to consumers (Loader 1999). We argue that consumers' imaginings of this program and its context raise some doubts about these interrelated assertions. However, we argue there is evidence of a fleeting "node" of governance (Johnston and Shearing 2003) present in this context. The current study suggests that private security's purchase on the consumer imagination may be weaker or more elusive than previously assumed and that further research is required. Befitting these findings, we suggest that as presently constituted, this kind of neighbourhood-based private security program has a limited future in Canada. Private security in theoretical perspective The private security sector has grown considerably in North America and Europe since the mid-twentieth century, but especially in the last three decades (Shearing and Stenning 1981; Jones and Newburn 1995; de Waard 1999). In Canada, between 1991 and 2001, Sanders (2005) reports that employment in the private security and investigation industry increased by 69%. Consisting of more than the traditional activities of night watchmen and "private eyes," in Canada private security has burgeoned in domains as varied as the deportation and detention of migrants (Pratt 2005), airport passenger screening (Lippert and O'Connor 2003), and the policing of economic crime (Williams 2005). Thus, private agents currently participate in virtually all aspects of policing, but perhaps the most visible move into the public police'...See the full content of this document
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