Book Review: Private Police
| Author | Bruce Swanton |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587901200211 |
| Published date | 01 June 1979 |
| Date | 01 June 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK
REVIEWS
59
"[The
police]
seemed
to just
sweep
the Aboriginals into the
back
of the van,
when
it
seemed
as
though they
were
just sitting
and
talking,
without
being
offensive. When I
asked
...
what
were
the
criteria for drunkenness in a public place, one or
two
policemen
said
...
'An Aboriginal is
drunk
as
soon as he has a drink as far as I am
concerned'."
the
reader
may
well
come
to the conclusion that quite the
wrong
people
are in
gaol.
J
OCEL
YNNE
AScur'r
Canberra
Private Police. Hilary
Draper,
Penguin,
Harmondsworth
(1978) 173
pp,
$2.95.
The
private security industry is currently achieving acertain
degree
of
criminological respectability in the sense
that
it has
not
only
achieved
a small
literature of its
own
but, is
the
object of
growing
academic
interest.
To
date, this
interest has
been
largely manifested
by
means of a limited
amount
of research,
the holding of conferences
and
seminars,
and
the selection of
the
industry
by
students as a suitable focus of study.
Private Police is an example of one student's interest, it
being
an
expanded
and
revised version of
the
author's honor's thesis. According to her, the
book
is
intended
to
convey
to
the
layperson a
picture
of
private
policing
and
investigation in Britain. It is
unfortunate
that
the
book's title shows at
the
outset a
fundamental misunderstanding
by
the
author
of the industry's
nature
and
role.
For, despite
some
very
limited overlap of police
and
private
security functions,
there is no such thing as private police,
whether
judged
by definition (See (1976)
Private Security -
Report
of
the Task
Force
On Private Security, p 4.) or role.
The
misunderstanding is
most
evident
in
the
introduction in
which
the
author
attempts
afacile
and
misleading
comparison
between
the police service
and
the
private security industry
and,
in
the
chapter
devoted
to discussing
the
relationship
between
police
and
private
security services in
which
she totally
fails to
appreciate
the
functional differences involved.
The
author is a barrister by
occupation
and
understandably
devotes
considerable
space
to considerations of legal controls
applicable
to
the
private
security industry. In so doing, she
provides
auseful
account
of
laws
and
cases
relevant to
both
the
British scene
and
elsewhere.
In addition to
the
legal aspects of
the
industry, the
author
addresses herself to
matters of historical
development,
adescription of administrative
and
operational activities, industry
problems,
and
relations
between
police
and
the
industry.
The
historical
treatment
unfortunately indicates a
rather
limited
preliminary literature research. In fact,
her
apparent
lack of awareness of
other
significant publications in the field is
evident
throughout the book.
The
account
of industry activities
and
problems
is similar to that in
other
popular
works in the
field, eg, Clayton's
The
Protectors
and
O'Toole's
The
Private Sector.
That
is to
say, it reflects
the
lack
of
familiarity
of
the
author
with
the
industry
and
her,
therefore, total reliance on the
information
and
opinions
provided
by
practitioners. It follows
that
analysis
and
assessment are necessarily limited.
The
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