Public Regulation of Private Security: A Statutory Analysis of State Regulation of Security Guards

Abstract

Security guards outnumber police by almost 3 to 1, and this discrepancy has been growing steadily since the latter part of the 20th century. Security guards perform many of the same functions as police officers and may even carry weapons, but to what extent do states regulate the private security industry? This article compares the change in state regulation of private security, in particular the requirements for hiring security guards. The provisions of the states as of 1982, 1998, and 2015 are compared and evaluated. We are interested in determining what threshold requirements the states have seen fit to establish for employment in the security industry, and whether these threshold requirements provide adequate protection for the public.