International Journal on Criminology Volume 5, Number 2, Winter 2017/2018 | Page 10

Contractual Issues in Private Security
In this case, private security is genuinely limited to contract security and,
therefore, subject to the law of supply and demand. We should note, however,
that in this context, company security directors must be trained and
authorized by a regulatory body. The relatively restrictive Spanish system
can be viewed as a form of largely State-driven professionalization.
• Britain: internal services are not subject to control by the regulator, the
Security Industry Authority. Companies alone are held responsible for
their security agents. To some extent, this lack of official oversight or
sanction makes internal private security an economic privilege.
• Belgium: some internal security guarding services are not subject to authorization
“when guarding activities are carried out only occasionally,
and exclusively by natural persons who carry out these activities only
occasionally and only free of charge. By occasional activities is meant a
frequency of no more than the standard of three to four times a year.
‘Unpaid’ means without any form of payment, even in kind or in the form
of a gratuity.” 8 Here, internal private security becomes voluntary work and
ceases to some extent to be an economic matter. Legal issues nonetheless
exist, and these remind us of the abuses that can arise in contract security:
“The phenomenon of ‘false volunteers’ must also be prevented: by this is
meant those who volunteer repeatedly, regardless of the event organizer.
These false volunteers are typically paid unofficially and are often recruited
by specialized associations or companies. These are, in reality, illegal
security guarding companies.” 9
• France: internal security services are authorized, both in the sense that
they are permitted and that they must be declared to the CNAPS, which
may involve an inspection. In this case, the market and the regulator
work together. There are exceptions: the internal security services of
SNCF and RATP do not fall within the scope of Book VI of the CSI and,
as of recently, may be hired by other operators. This sort of internal private
security, not regulated by Book VI, resembles contractual private
security.
On closer inspection, internal security, where it exists, is often not far removed
from contract security, and can also be approached from an economic
point of view: it too is in practice financed by a customer and made available at
a particular price. It requires an employment contract between a company and a
private security agent. Internal security is only partially exempt from the market
and is still generally perceived as a cost center rather than a profit center. Finally,
8 Interministerial Delegation on Private Security. “La sécurité privée en Belgique.” Mission Report,
February 21–22, 2012, 10.
9 Ibid.
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