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Taking care of business

Public police as commercial security vendors

Australian National University, Australia, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Clifford Shearing

Australian National University, Australia, University of Cape Town, South Africa

The article examines practices in `user-pays' policing. It locates these practices historically as well established, with a lineage that stretches back to the beginnings of the police in Britain and earlier. The article identifies different forms of user-pays policing, the various practices they include and the regulatory issues raised by them. Consideration of the tension between a conception of policing as a public service and charging for police services suggests that user-pays policing can be, and often is, compatible with public interests and the provision of public goods. A case study of events policing within an Australian Police agency explains this further. The article concludes with a consideration of the risks that may be associated with user-pays policing and of possible future directions for police participation in the market-place as security vendors.

Key Words: commercialization • contract policing • events policing • fee-for-service policing • user-pays policing

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