How Extensive is the Privatization of Security?

by John P. RuehlFacebook

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Photograph Source: conceptphoto.info – CC BY 2.0

In August 2024, due to a $4 million budget shortfall, Idaho’s Caldwell School District terminated its $296,807 contract with the local police department, opting instead for armed guards from Eagle Eye Security. The new $280,000 contract is just a drop in the bucket of the roughly $50 billion U.S. private security industry and the $248 billion global market that is reshaping law enforcement worldwide.

While private military companies (PMCs) like Blackwater (now Academi) and Wagner have gained notoriety in war zones, private security companies (PSCs) are rapidly expanding in non-combat settings. Despite some overlapbetween the two, PSCs generally protect assets and individuals. Often collaborating with law enforcement, the effectiveness and ethical standards of PSCs vary widely, and armed guards are increasingly common. Security guards in the U.S. in 2021 outnumbered police by about 3:2.

Public policy is still playing catch up. Unlike police forces, PSCs operate under contract rather than direct taxpayer funding. They also don’t have the same level of regulation, oversight, or accountability. Criticisms of the police—such as excessive force and inadequate training—are frequently directed at private security officers as well. Many former police officers with controversial histories find employment in PSCs, where barriers to entry are low. Turnover, meanwhile, remains high, while wages are minimal. Yet the sector’s ongoing expansion appears inevitable.

Government forces and private security forces have been a part of society for millennia. Government forces mainly responded to unrest rather than preventing crime, often relying on volunteers. Private security options included hiring guards and bounty hunters, while communal efforts like the “hue and cry”—where villagers collectively chased down criminals— were also common ways of enforcing security. With increasing urbanization, though, traditional law enforcement methods became less effective, prompting the creation of the first modern police force, the London Metropolitan Police, in 1829. Distinct from the military, more accountable to city authorities and business interests, and focused on crime prevention, this model was adopted by Boston in 1838 and spread to nearly all U.S. cities by the 1880s.

The emergence of public police forces coincided with the birth of the modern private security industry. Founded in the U.S. in 1850, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, as it was eventually called, is considered the first modern PSC. With its nationwide reach, investigative expertise, and role in safeguarding companies, Pinkerton distinguished itself by protecting businesses from theft, vandalism, and sabotage. Its controversial role in events like the Homestead Strike of 1892, when the company “essentially went to war with thousands of striking workers,” led to greater regulatory scrutiny, but the company continued to drive industry growth.

After World War II, the rise in PSC use within U.S. residential communitiesboosted demand, further accelerated by the racially tinged civil unrest of the 1960s and 1970s, which spurred private initiatives to police cities. The 1980s brought deregulation and professionalization, as many corporations established in-house security departments and PSCs prioritized hiring former law enforcement officers over those with military backgrounds.

Today, private security has a global presence, providing services ranging from bouncers and bodyguards to crowd control units and specialized armed teams. PSCs are generally cheaper than using police forces, and the widespread adoption of surveillance and other technologies has increasingly leveled the playing field. However, private personnel primarily serve as a visible deterrent, discouraging crime through their presence rather than direct intervention. They are often focused on monitoring and patrolling, which can divert criminal activity rather than resolve it. As the demand for private security grows, debate continues over their role and broader societal impact.

U.S. ratios of police staffing to civilian population peaked around the early 2000s, and police agencies say shortages are now widespread. As police departments have struggled to boost their ranks, PSCs have filled the gap. Allied-Universal, with 300,000 American employees, is one of the largest private employers in the country. Meanwhile, for high-net-worth individuals like Mark Zuckerberg, personal security expenses can exceed $14 million annually.

PSCs have stepped in to respond to a variety of situations, including protests at universities. In January 2024, Apex Security Group personnel dismantled pro-Palestinian encampments at UC Berkeley, later clearing similar sites at Columbia University in April and UCLA in May. Many PSCs, however, pursue more lucrative long-term contracts. UCLA has paid Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) for campus patrols for years, and UC San Francisco spent $3.5 million on CSC in 2023, according to watchdog group American Transparency.

PSCs are also widely employed to target the unhoused and address shoplifting in California. Following a rise in the state’s homeless population by 40 percent since 2019 and an increase in petty crime, PSCs have secured valuable contracts with local governments, private businesses, families, and individuals. The Bureau of Security and Investigative Services oversees the sector in the state, but incidents still raise concerns. In May 2023, an Allied Universal guard fatally shot Banko Brown, an unarmed Black person suspected of shoplifting. The San Francisco district attorney’s office chose not to file charges, sparking public outcry.

In Portland, police budget cuts spurred by defunding initiatives following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests led to the disbanding of special units and a wave of officer resignations and retirements. 911 hold times increased fivefold from 2019 to 2023, as more lenient crime policies allegedly contributed to a rise in crime rates.

In response, thousands of private security personnel now patrol the city, with the number licensed to carry firearms rising by nearly 40 percent since 2019. More than 400 local businesses pay Echelon, a Portland-based PSC, to deploy dozens of guards around the clock. Echelon and its personnel have attempted to build relationships with the homeless and people suffering from addiction and mental illness by providing food, responding to overdoses, and de-escalating conflicts. While crime in Portland has gone down since its peak in 2022, this reflects nationwide trends and comes as the city has attempted to reinstate police numbers.

American PSCs are expanding their roles across the country. In Las Vegas, Protective Force International formed its own squad in May 2024 to clear out squatters from an apartment complex, in addition to its other security services in the city. In New Orleans, Pinnacle Security is one of many firms operating, with roughly 250 security guards patrolling neighborhoods, businesses, and government buildings.

In Chicago, a 2021 accusation by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that businesses were failing to take adequate theft prevention measures spurred greater private initiatives. The Fulton Market District Improvement Association, a local group supported by local restaurateurs and developers, launched private patrols with P4 Security Solutions in 2024. P4 personnel operate both on foot and by car and provide security to other Chicago neighborhoods, with plans to expand further.

Private security, however, is not just a U.S. phenomenon. PSCs are well established globally, no more so than in Latin America. From the 1970s onward, the War on Drugs fueled massive transnational criminal empires and widespread police corruption. As military dictatorships ended in the 1990s, the transition to democratic governments in Latin America often resulted in weak institutions, leading to instability and security challenges. In response, private security boomed, primarily serving the wealthy.

Today, Latin America is home to more than 16,000 PMCs and PSCs employing more than 2 million people, often outnumbering police forces in poorly regulated markets. Their rapid expansion has led to serious issues, including criminal infiltration of PSCs in Mexico and El Salvador and claims of extrajudicial killings in Guatemala. Western resource companies, in coordination with local authorities, have also used PSCs to safeguard their operations and confront protesters in the region.

Latin America has typically been a source of recruitment for the private security industry, with many U.S. PMCs employing personnel during the War on Terror. Recently, the region has also become a market for foreign PSCs. Chinese PSCs, while restricted domestically, are increasingly involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in the region, as well as in private ventures.

Zhong Bao Hua An Security Company, for example, has contracts with businesses in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Tie Shen Bao Biao offers personal protection services in Panama, while the Mexico-Chinese Security Council was established in 2012 to protect Chinese businesses and personnel from violence.

The collapse of security states in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, combined with the adoption of capitalism, created fertile ground for both PMCs and PSCs. In Bulgaria, early PSCs were often founded by sportsmen, particularly wrestlers, with connections to organized crime. By 2005, a United Nations report estimated that 9 percent of working men in Bulgaria were employed in private security—a pattern found across the former Eastern Bloc.

Though growth has been slower in Western Europe, PSCs have still expanded. France recently deployed 10,000 security guards across Paris for the 2024 Olympics, only for many of them to strike over working conditionsweeks before the opening ceremony.

The European Union has increasingly relied on PSCs to manage its migrant crisis, generating massive profits for the industry. Private actors were quick to label migration as a security threat while supporting policies that promote instability abroad. Major arms dealers and security firms like Airbus and Leonardo, for example, sell weapons in conflict zones that fuel violence and displacement. They then profit again by selling security equipment to European border agencies.

While violence has decreased across Africa in recent decades, localized instability has led to a surge in the security industry. The distinction between PSCs and PMCs is often blurred on the continent, with PSCs frequently finding themselves undertaking quasi-military roles such as convoy protection, protection of natural resource extraction sites in hostile areas, and armed confrontations.

Chinese PSCs have become more prevalent to compensate for the security gaps left by African governments for BRI investments, contrasting to Russia’s use of conflict-oriented PMCs in Africa. Regulation varies, with minimal oversight in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and more stringent controls in Uganda.

South Africa’s PSC industry in particular has flourished since the end of apartheid in the 1990s. Rising crime and falling police numbers have led citizens to rely more on the private sector for safety and asset protection. According to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, there are 2.7 million registered private security officers working in South Africa, outnumbering police 4:1. Services include patrolling neighborhoods, providing armed guards, and tracking and recovering stolen vehicles.

The PSC industry’s rise has been fueled by gaps in state security measures. However, in areas where PSCs operate, crime rates frequently remain high due to their focus on protecting private property and individuals rather than maintaining public order. Financial incentives can also lead to problems being managed superficially rather than addressing underlying issues. Additionally, PSC employees frequently face burnout, low pay, and negative working conditions. As PSCs intersect with private prisons, this has raised further concern over their expanding influence and overlapping roles.

Despite its growth in recent decades, the PSC industry’s progress has proven reversible in the past. By 2001, Argenbright Security controlled almost 40 percent of U.S. airport checkpoints, but the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after 9/11 centralized airport security back under government control, with limited private sector involvement.

Nevertheless, the industry is likely to continue expanding, particularly as new initiatives find uses for them. India, which has the world’s largest private security force at approximately 12 million, is expected to continue seeing strong industry expansion, especially in securing its increasing number of private communities, colloquially termed “gated republics.”

Private security already plays a major role in private cities, which are becoming more prevalent worldwide. In these cities, governance is largely handled by boards and CEOs rather than elected officials, and profit motives often overshadow public needs. The safety divide between rich and poor is further exacerbated, as security becomes a commodity instead of a public concern.

In Honduras, the island of Roatán is at the epicenter of a clash between the government and local communities on the one hand and international entrepreneurs behind Próspera, a company developing a private city on the island, on the other. The escalating tensions highlight the realities of under-resourced government forces facing off against well-funded companies backed by heavily armed private guards.

As the role of private security continues to expand, regulations must evolve at the same pace. In the U.S., with regulations primarily established at the state level and lacking uniformity, there is a need for greater oversight to address potential issues effectively. Failing to do so will undermine public accountability by allowing private companies to operate with minimal restrictions, as well as deepen societal divides.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.

The Enemy Next Door: Achilles and Hector

by Evaggelos VallianatosFacebook

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The Greek superhero Achilles, left, is killing the Trojan superhero Hector (Homer, Iliad, bk 22). Painting by Evi Sarantea.

I have been studying Greek history for a very long time. In fact, I learned ancient and medieval Greek history at the University of Illinois and received a doctorate in modern Greek and European history at the University of Wisconsin. I wrote my dissertation on Adamantios Koraes whom I consider the father of the Greek Revolution of 1821. Koraes working from Paris, kept reminding the Greeks under Turkish occupation in the early 19^th century that they were the children of the ancient Greeks whose civilization had created the modern world. This inspired them to throw the Turks out of their country and, eventually, become independent and free.

Beginnings

In 1828, the European great powers, Russia, France, and England sent Ioannes Kapodistrias to Greece as the first President of the country. Kapodistrias was an outstanding diplomat, perhaps the best in Europe. He worked for the Tzar of Russia. He was responsible for the independence and neutrality of Switzerland. He also prevented the dismemberment of France after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. From 1816 to 1822, he was the Foreign Minister of Russia. But in addition to his understanding of the Europeans, Kapodistrias was a Greek patriot that tried to create a Greek state independent of local parties and foreign influence. He organized the Greek army, expanded and settled the borders of the new country, and otherwise set the foundations for the rule of law and the betterment of life of all the people of Greece. This displeased the few Greek landowners and foreign powers, especially England and France, which funded his assassination on September 27, 1831.

Foreign influence

The killing of Kapodistrias darkened modern Greek history. The European powers installed a German king to govern the country, thus doing away with democracy in Greece and the political independence of the country. Instead of building up the strength of Greece, the emerging Greek politicians, schooled in the ways of Europe and America, took the easy and profitable way of becoming the lobbyists of foreign governments. They still are – in 2024. They are responsible for the perpetual decline of the country.

This political crisis became acute during the Obama administration. The American financial tsunami of 2008 sent seismic signs to Greece. The Greek Statistical Authority came under the control of a man from the International Monetary Fund, an agency of the Department of the Treasury of the United States. This man manipulated Greek statistics and raised the country’s deficit from 6 to 12.5 percent of the GDP. This fraud had serious consequences. In 2009, Prime Minister George Papandreou dumped Greece to the Troika: European Union, European Central Bank, and America’s International Monetary Fund, supposedly to fix the finances of the country. This turned out to be a hostile act. It put foreigners on the wheels of the Greek state. The country has been under European and American bureaucratic occupation ever since. The bureaucrats of the EU-IMF used the money Greece borrowed from them not to invest in Greece but to save bankrupt German, French and American banks. Greece was put on a diet of austerity that resembled the German occupation of Greece, April 1941- October 1944. Moreover, the foreign debt rulers started selling off the assets of Greece: airports and telephones to Germany, the harbor of Piraeus to China, railroads to Italy. Cowboy capitalism impoverished town and village alike. And despite the 30,000,000 tourists who visit Greece every year, spending billions in the country, the Greek government is by no means supportive of Greek manufacturing, even selling off to foreigners its defense industry.

However, there may be rays of hope in the reorganization of the defense industry.

“Greece’s re-armament program,” says the Greek reporter Spyridon Plakoudas, “which may exceed 11.5. billion euros by 2025, will offer its defense industries new contracts with the Ministry of Defense. In fact, local defense companies have supplied the Greek military with made-in-Greece weaponry such as drones and speedboats in growing numbers from late 2020 onwards – a trend that will only be reinforced in the near future. This program also will involve allied states with established defense industries – most notably, Israel, France, the UAE, and the U.S. Either as investors… or as partners in the co-production of key weapons such as new frigates… in [Greek] Shipyards, these countries can act as a force multiplier for the still-nascent Greek defense industry.”

The enemy next door

The enemy next door, Turkey, is watching. With 40,000 soldiers on northern Cyprus, Turkey’s appetite is expanding for the capture of the rest of Cyprus and possibly Greece. Turkey is building up its navy, a policy disturbing its neighbors, Israel and Greece. Turkey refuses to even recognize the Democratic Republic of Cyprus, a member of the United Nations and European Union. And neither the government of Athens or Leukosia have complained to the EU or the United Nations or taken Turkey to the International Court of Justice for Turkey’s genocidal policies against the Greeks of the occupied territory of Cyprus. For 50 years the Turks have committed war crimes, cleansing, rapes, killings, and genocide in northern Cyprus. The incomprehensive reluctance of Greece and Greek Cyprus to face the truth of what Turkey is and what it plans to do, emboldens Turkey. They should have a strategy to free Cyprus of the Turkish menace and be ready to fight and defeat Turkey.

America’s fear of Russia and Turkey

Erdogan cares less about NATO, to which the US recruited Turkey and Greece in the 1950s. Erdogan, however, understands America’s fear of Russia. Like other Turkish leaders before him, he must have told American policy makers Turkey will stay at NATO as long as America gives him all that he asks: money, advanced military technologies, and Greek territory. After all, Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 only after President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 ordered Greece to withdraw its army from Cyprus. And as if the US wanted to reward Turkey for staying in NATO, in 1959, it moved 50 nuclear bombs to the Incirlik Turkish air force base.

This American-Turkish connection freezes the leaders of Greece who have already gone through the humiliations of the debt during the Obama administration. They are already the lobbyists of foreign powers and face the rapidly growing military power of Turkey. They are afraid to go to China and India, for example, to ask those countries to assist them strengthening the military power of Greece to match and exceed that of Turkey, which America will not do because of NATO and concerns and fear of Turkey.

American policy makers must feel terrified about the fate of their nuclear bombs in a Turkish air force base. Can they take the weapons out of Turkey? This is a Moslem country of long-standing policies of genocide and atrocities, with ambitions of empire. What will the Turks do if they suspect Americans may remove the bombs? Will they capture the weapons and kill the American soldiers guarding them? Such a prospect will spark a major war between America and Turkey with certain catastrophic consequences for Turkey and the Aegean and the Mediterranean. No one is talking about this Gordian Knot that President Dwight Eisenhauer tied during the intense fear of annihilation of the Cold War, in 1959. There’s no doubt, the US should bring those weapons back home.

Turkey and Greece

However, in 2024, Turkey is acting like a superpower. It is fighting the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria. NATO remains silent to the Turkish genocide against the Kurds and against the Greeks in northern Cyprus. And the government of Greece is also silent about this and other Turkish threats, particularly Turkey’s push toward the Greek Aegean islands. “Turkey,” said Greek reporters, “claimed to be “suffocating” by the proximity to its shores of the Eastern Aegean islands and the Dodecanese under Greek sovereignty… Turkish strategy toward Greece has focused on “breaking the encirclement” and laying claim to half of the Aegean Sea. The “Blue Homeland” is projected as a springboard for geopolitical claims and has quickly become extremely popular among the ranks of the Turkish Armed Forces…. With the “Blue Homeland” we now have a complete picture of Turkish claims. It is a nationalist, revisionist and aggressive ideology. A ticking time bomb… As has happened in the past with the neighboring country’s claims, if we let them mature, they will be magnified, giving Turkey the confidence to create illegal faits accomplis, like the Turkish-Libyan pact.”

In fact, Turkish officials and Erdogan are already saying that the Greek islands in the Aegean belong to them. Turkey is teaching its elementary school children that the “blue homeland” (the Aegean Sea) is theirs. Greece remains silent to these provocations risking her sovereignty. The Turks interpret Greek silence to acceptance of their virulent ideology. Turkey then demands more of Greece. Neither NATO, nor the UN, nor the EU, nor the US are protesting and challenging these deadly Turkish threats preparing the ground for war against Greece.

Greek assets

Rather than playing the game of cat and mouse with the enemy next door, Greece can transform herself to her ancient traditions of courage and freedom and knowledge that would make the country invincible. Keep developing the defense industry at home and collaborate with Israel, France and other countries that can increase Greek skills and technologies beneficial to national defense. If Erdogan dares to attack any of the Greek islands, Greece and Cyprus must be ready to fight and win over Turkey.

At the same time light up a Renaissance to prepare the Greek people to understand who they are. Punish or ostracize those Greeks who hate Greece. Shut down or severely restrict the political activities of Greeks who are foreign lobbyists. Read the books of your ancestors in the schools. Teach ancient Greek to all Greek students from preschool to college. Teach them also Greek mythology, poetry, literature, philosophy, history, and science. Use the money from tourism to improve Greek archaeology, and the explanations tourists must have to appreciate what they see in the museums and archaeological sites. Tourists are potential Philhellenes. They could become a tremendous asset for the defense of Greece. They are potential Greek ambassadors in their countries.

Help to reverse the industrialization of Greek agriculture. Help peasants to keep producing food in their villages. Stop the interaction with the EU programs of homogenization of the countryside. Greek culture and climate change and good food demand the end of the use of toxic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, the use of large tractors and other petroleum-burning machines. Replace all these ecocidal technologies with domesticated bulls, horses, mules, and donkeys.

Become the school of Europe and the cultural capital of the world. Educate the millions of tourists visiting the country about those who built ancient Greece, particularly the founders of civilization: those who like Euclid and Archimedes created mathematics and Homer who wrote the beautiful and immortal epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Teach students, non-students, tourists about Aristotle who invented science and taught Alexander the Great.

Such a Renaissance takes time. The Arabs created their culture in the 8^th to 10^th centuries from studying translated copies of Greek philosophical and scientific works. They nearly worshipped Aristotle whom they called The Philosopher. The Europeans did the same thing in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Modern Greeks must follow up with the ideas of their ancestors now, in 2024 and several years after. Such an acquaintance with Homer, Hesiod, Pythagoras, the tragic poets (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Euclid, Archimedes, Hipparchos, Plutarch, Ptolemaios, and Galen will make Greece the superpower it has always been.

In a Greece of light, Turkey, if it exists at all, will pose no threat. Like other neighboring countries, it will be seeking enlightenment rather than war. Hector died at the hands of Achilles.

Evaggelos Vallianatos, Ph.D., studied history and biology at the University of Illinois; earned his Ph.D. in Greek and European history at the University of Wisconsin; did postdoctoral studies in the history of science at Harvard. He worked on Capitol Hill and the US EPA; taught at several universities and authored several books, including The Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and its Demise. He is the author of Earth on Fire: Brewing Plagues and Climate Chaos in Our Backyards, forthcoming by World Scientific, Spring 2025.