The plain advantage of private security services is to the organizations they serve, by protecting assets, reducing loss, and creating a safe environment for operations. The fact that robust security improves business outcomes has also become more widely accepted—the result of numerous studies that find a correlation between the two (our infographic describes a small selection of them). But what is the link between private security services and public safety? What lessons do research studies teach us? Here is a sample.

Key Points:

• As municipalities look for ways to address growing social disorder, there is a wealth of research suggesting they would benefit from leveraging private security resources.

• Several studies suggest a “multiplication effect,” in which benefits of private security services extend beyond the point of security intervention and reverberate more widely for public benefit.

• Studies reflect a range of benefits from private security services, including improving the image of police, greater public sense of security, and crime reduction.

What is the impact of PPP on crime and community attitudes toward police?

Study: Researchers explored a large police agency’s partnership with a private security firm in two diverse, high-crime neighborhoods. It found using private security for patrols reduced crime and improved public attitudes. (Public-Private Partnerships: Exploring Perceptions and Efficacy of Community Security Patrols, Journal of Applied Security Research, June 2022)

Key finding: Road patrols in marked security vehicles produced significant decreases in crime in both the pre-and post-implementation periods.

Surveys of residents revealed that after the completion of the project, citizens had more positive perceptions of the police, believed that crime had declined, and reported lower fear of crime.

‍Could private security forces help cities to manage issues related to people experiencing homelessness?

Study: Researchers conducted interviews with people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in a mid-size Canadian city. It found private security officers can be effectively utilized to deter or address a variety of social disorder concerns and provide a critical lifeline to people experiencing homelessness, such as managing disputes and providing referrals to social services. (‘You have to be grateful that they have eyes watching over us’: When Security Guards Protect and Serve People Experiencing Homelessness, Maier, Katharina & Urbanik, Social Problems, Oxford University Press, 2024).

 Key Finding: Rather than treating PEH punitively as is often assumed, security guards typically take a benevolent approach to their work, making important contributions to PEH’s perceptions of safety in public space.

In an era of debates and calls for police defunding, abolition, and the move away from punitive law and order approaches to homelessness, marginalization, drug use, and crime, it is possible that an unlikely actor—private security officials—can fill a gap and provide critical services for PEH. 

Is the presence of private security personnel an effective way to control criminal activity in public spaces?

Study: Researchers tested the efficacy of utilizing security officers to patrol transit stations as a test case for heavily trafficked environments that experience a variety of crime. It discovered that private security patrols are cost-effective ways to reduce crime. (‘Lowering the threshold of effective deterrence’—Testing the effect of private security agents in public spaces on crime: A randomized controlled trial in a mass transit system, Ariel B, Bland M, Sutherland A and Cambridge University, PLoSONE, 2017).

Key finding: For far less cost, private security can reduce against-person crimes by 31% and theft-from-person crimes by 22%, even in an already low-crime environment.

If security guards can supplement basic crime control functions, with less cost than the operational cost of state agents, policymakers should consider new policing models that formally incorporate for-pay guards in the overall crime suppression strategy and tactics.

‍Does greater private security presence make people feel safer at large public gatherings?

Study: The National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) at the University of Mississippi examined current public attitudes toward security. It found an ardent desire among event attendees for enhanced security. (Spectator Sports Safety and Security Survey—2023 Industry Research Report, National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, Sept. 2023.)

Key finding: 70% of spectators “agreed” or “strongly agreed "that they consider safety and security measures before attending an event.

Although spectators’ desire to attend live sporting events is based on several factors, their overall experience and sense of personal safety will significantly determine whether they return.

Do private security patrols result in safer communities?

Study: Researchers examined security patrols at a university campus in a major US city and compared patrol and property boundaries against crime statistics to calculate the crime prevention effects of the university force. It found the security patrols reduced crime in the surrounding neighborhood. (The Effect of Privately Provided Police Services on Crime: Evidence from a Geographic Regression Discontinuity Design, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Institute for Law and Economics).

Key finding: Violent crime was 60% lower; property crime, 55% lower; and street crime, 46% lower inside the patrol boundary but outside of the university campus.

Our results also suggest that privately employed [security forces] generate reductions in crime that are comparable to those associated with public police forces … and suggest that augmenting public police forces with substantial private investments can have a meaningful effect on crime rates.

Could one entity’s utilization of private security improve the security environment more broadly?

Study: Researchers conducted data analysis to learn the effect of private maritime security on international public safety. It found the presence of private security forces not only improves vessel safety by significantly reducing piracy-related risk, but it also generates an external effect of private security. (Private security, maritime piracy and the provision of international public safety, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, April 2020)

Key finding: As little as 10% of all attacked vessels being privately secured significantly reduces the risk of an attack against unsecured vessels both contemporaneously and in the future.

This research contributes to our knowledge of the private provision of public safety by displaying how the risk and uncertainty borne from employing private security can nearly eradicate piracy.

Should Nations examine how to maximize the contribution of private security for public safety?

Study: A global review of private security’s role in public safety by the United Nations. It found that while States play a primary role, public safety and crime prevention are not the sole responsibility of government or public law enforcement and that private security’s contribution can be enhanced. (State Regulation concerning Civilian Private Security Services and their Contribution to Crime Prevention and Community Safety, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2014).

Key Finding: States should engage in cooperation and partnerships with the private security sector and take actions to enhance the sector’s ability to succeed in its growing role.

A cooperative and consultative approach between the public police and civilian private security can be a force multiplier in the provision of community security and the prevention of crime.

How does the public perceive the role of private security firms in crime prevention and control?

Study: A sample survey in Osogbo, Osun State in Nigeria, examined the role that private security firms play in crime prevention and control. It concluded that private security plays an invaluable role in crime prevention, amplified by low Police-Population ratio, and that people and businesses look up to and depend on private security firms to provide security services and prevent crime on their behalf. (Role of Private Security Firms in Enhancing Urban Safety and Crime Prevention, International Journal of Criminology and Security Studies, Department of Criminology and Security Studies Federal University, Nov.2024)

Key Finding: Private security services were highly regarded, with 61.3% considering them highly relevant for public safety.

Information should be collected for sharing between private security employees and law enforcement, and private security workers should have access to secure networks for sharing information in a similar manner as public security organizations across the nation and the world.

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