Public-Private Partnerships: Exploring Perceptions and Efficacy of Community Security Patrols

Abstract

This paper explores how one large police agency entered into a public-private partnership with a private security firm to supplement police power and presence in two diverse, high-crime neighborhoods. Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers found road patrol in marked security vehicles produced significant decreases in Part I and II crimes in the pre-and post-implementation periods. Further, 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.

Keywords:

• Police
• partnership
• perception
• presence
• security
• innovation

Notes

1 For discussions on the growth and regulation of private policing see the RAND report (Kakalik & Wildhorn, 1972) and the Hallcrest report (Cunningham & Taylor, 1985). While both studies are important in the discussion of the historical development of private policing neither provide a detailed examination of actual studies related to the deployment of private policing. In addition, Shearing (1992) provides a compelling philosophical discussion of the role of private police and their purview into the public police domain. However, a review of the philosophy and history of private policing is beyond the scope of the current study.

2 Because several of the attitudinal measures were ordinal, we also conducted Wilcoxon sign-rank tests. Results were substantively identical for these analyses in significance and direction of the relationships. We present and discuss the mean differences for ease of interpretation.