The “New” Private Security Industry, the Private Policing of Cyberspace and the Regulatory Questions

Abstract

This article explores the growth of the “new” private security industry and private policing arrangements, policing cyberspace. It argues there has been a significant change in policing which is equivalent to the “quiet revolution” associated with private policing that Shearing and Stenning observed in the 1970s and 1980s, marking the “second quiet revolution.” The article then explores some of the regulatory questions that arise from these changes, which have been largely ignored to date by scholars of policing and policy-makers, making some clear recommendations for the future focus of them.