International Journal on Criminology Volume 5, Number 2, Winter 2017/2018 | Page 12

Contractual Issues in Private Security
The case gave rise to the SNES-SNCF Charter, signed on February 9, 2009
by the CEO of SNCF, Guillaume Pépy, and SNES’s new president, Michel Ferrero,
and sponsored by Eric Besson, the Minister for Immigration, Integration, National
Identity, and Sustainable Development. 14 The idea of an applied code of ethics for
the private security sector, using a similar soft law charter, arose at the same time.
The central, perhaps essential, role played by contractors in professionalization,
improving ethical standards, and ultimately justifying a regulatory reform
was still apparent, although slightly neglected, in the 2010 report by the General
Inspectorates of Administration, National Police and the Gendarmerie Nationale
on the inspection of private security companies, known as the “Blot-Diederichs
Report.” This made several specific recommendations for the security market and
the treatment of customers.
The “Blot-Diederichs project” had initially recommended creating “the post
of delegate to the Minister of the Interior with a mission to inform and negotiate
with customers in order to promote good practice,” with the more specific task, in
another recommendation, of “recalling the regulations for monitoring public procurement
by the future delegate to the private security market.” This role was never
created because it was felt, rightly, to overlap with that of the Interdepartmental
Delegate for Private Security (DISP), a role also recommended by the “Blot-
Diederichs project.” The DISP has indeed taken up the question of customers,
with, as we will see below, mixed results.
Four other recommendations targeted the private security market and
showed that customers were at least one of the issues that had to be tackled in order
to improve the regulation of the private security sector effectively, particularly
its economic regulation:
• Involving contractors in the improvement of ethical standards: “When
defining contract specifications, companies should be required to provide
contractors with a list of personnel employed both by themselves and their
subcontractors, as well as these employees’ professional license numbers.”
• Using standardization to professionalize the client–provider relationship:
“The industry and public authorities should commit, without delay, to
drafting a minimal standard for the profession’s operating conditions, applicable
both to businesses and customers, and potentially a certification
system.”
• Strengthening the role of security directors in purchasing decisions: “We
recommend that businesses’ security contracts are approved from a technical
point of view by security officers before they are signed by the purchasing
department.”
• Involving public policymakers in the restructuring of the sector:
“Provision should be made for the appointment of CNAPS members by
14 SNES. 2009. “Signature d’une ‘Charte d’achat responsable’.”
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