Seeing like private security: Evolving mentalities of public space protection in South Africa

Berg, J.Th.J. van den

doi:10.1177/1748895810370315

Cited by 37 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In this way, the political and institutional orientation of policing can encourage a coercive working culture on the ground, including aggressiveness and stereotyping. As scholars have explored changing manifestations of policing, they have too mapped the culture of private security agents Á with some suggesting that the mentalities and behaviour of security officers mirror those conducted by the public police (Rigakos 2002; see also Berg 2010).…”

Section: The Field and Local Life Of Border Enforcementmentioning

confidence: 98%

Border regimes and the sociology of policing

Loftus

2013

Policing and Society

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Throughout the world, resources are being shifted towards border enforcement. Along with the concerted political and financial investment afforded by states into defending territories, the apparatus of border policing comprises of numerous state agencies and an ever-expanding range of private actors and commercial bodies. Yet an examination of the culture and practices of those responsible for the routine preservation of border priorities has garnered surprisingly little attention within the sociology of policing. In this research note, I foreground an agenda intended to extend current research and reflection on the everyday policing and surveillance of borders. My starting point is that the policing of borders is undergoing significant changes but without the accompanying scrutiny by policing scholars. Drawing on examples from the USA and Europe, my overarching claim is that as policing and security governance on the border becomes more innovative and pluralistic, policing scholars need to engage in sustained ethnographic fieldwork to track how security frameworks are realised at the local level and acted out against national environments. In so doing, policing scholarship can lead the way in developing a more holistic understanding of border practices with a view to redressing the social injustice experienced by those at the receiving end of contemporary border regimes.

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Section: The Field and Local Life Of Border Enforcementmentioning

confidence: 98%

Border regimes and the sociology of policing

Loftus

2013

Policing and Society

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“…Although private security is not a new phenomenon, there is something new about modern private security, which is its pervasiveness and scope of operation which now extends to emerging public spaces (Shearing and Stenning 1981;Berg 2010). PSCs have also gone global and operate across borders with greatly varying levels of service, governance, and professionalism (Lalonde 2010;Owusu et al 2016).…”

Section: The Main Concern About Private Security Companiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of Private Security Companies and Equitable Policing in Nigeria

Suchi¹

2017

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Private security companies through the services they provide complement the police in crime prevention, order maintenance, and general improvement of security in societies thereby contributing to sustainable national development. In order to fully benefit from their contribution and prevent them from engaging in illegal activities, states formulate and enforce policies that seek to regulate their activities. This paper examines the regulation of private guards companies in Nigeria using Abuja as its empirical core. The main aim is to promote understanding of how the private security industry is regulated and evaluate the effectiveness of the existing regulatory policy. Data for the paper were generated from in-depth interviews with the NSCDC (Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps), analysis of the policy for PSCs (private security companies), and a review of the annual performance report of the regulatory agency. The results revealed that the current system of PSC regulation is characterized by a lack of specialty classification of private security licences, limited regulatory scope with a focus on licensing of companies, lack of uniform standards on training, and high cost/difficulties in obtaining operational license. The paper concludes that the current regulatory setup for PSCs in Nigeria is ineffective and unsustainable and recommends an urgent review of the legal framework to alien its provisions with global standards and practices in the private security industry. keywordsPrivate security, equitable policing, regulatory policy, sustainable developmentThe role of private security companies (PSCs) in security provision and sustainable development is increasingly gaining recognition and acceptance in many countries. This is further propelled by the perceived or real increase in insecurity due to an upsurge of insurgency across the globe. PSCs through the wide range of services they provide (such as guard and patrol, security consultancy, training, and capacity development) not only contribute to the activity of making societies safe but also to national development (Bearpark and Schulz 2007;Gumedze 2007).To the extent that "peace and security" is at the base of the drive to sustainable development (Molomo 2009), and many institutions now share the responsibility for providing security (Johnston and Shearing 2003), it is important to examine the place of PSCs in the matter, particularly how their involvement in policing is regulated  . In so doing, it is important to ask certain questions regarding the regulation of PSCs in Nigeria: What are the policies on regulation of

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“…We must also be wary about suggesting that policing is solely about being as visible as possible. Quite simply, ‘much of the police work performed is not observable by publics’ (Innes 2004b, 156), as is the case with other public and private policing bodies (Berg 2010). The HBO television series The Wire , for instance, depicts how particular public spaces in Baltimore are monitored by covert means: officers hiding in parked cars, on rooftops, at overlooking windows, or sat in their office monitoring telephone wires and watching footage from visible and hidden surveillance cameras.…”

Section: Being (In)visiblementioning

confidence: 99%

Visibility and the Policing of Public Space

Cook

Whowell

2011

Geography Compass

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From studies of 'panoptic' CCTV surveillance to accounts of undercover police officers, it is often mooted that visibility and invisibility are central to the policing of public space.However, there has been no comprehensive and critical assessment of this axiom. Drawing on the practices of a variety of policing providers and regulators, and the work of geographers, criminologists and other social scientists, this paper examines how and why visibility underpins the policing of public space. We begin by considering the ways in which policing bodies and technologies seek to render themselves selectively visible and invisible in the landscape. The paper then moves on to explore the ways in which policing agents attempt to make 'incongruous' bodies, behaviours and signs variously visible and invisible in public space. We then offer a sympathetic critique of these accounts, arguing that more attention is needed in understanding: (i) how other senses such as touch, smell and sound are socially constructed as in and out-of-place and 'policed' accordingly; and (ii) how the policing of undesirable bodies and practices is not simply about quantitative crime reduction, but conducted through qualitative, embodied performance. The paper concludes by pinpointing key areas for future research.

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Seeing like private security: Evolving mentalities of public space protection in South Africa

Cited by 37 publications

References 27 publications

Border regimes and the sociology of policing

Border regimes and the sociology of policing

Regulation of Private Security Companies and Equitable Policing in Nigeria

Visibility and the Policing of Public Space

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