Private security officers on Hot Spot Patrol - A mixed method multiple case study

Abstract

Aims and objectives: This thesis aimed to gain knowledge of the extent private security officers patrolling public spaces ‘work’. By considering the conditions the private security officers are intended to address, stipulated by their customers and regulatory institution, I approach the research question permeating my thesis: Why is the intervention implemented and to what extent does it work? This is further deconstructed and defined as two separate but related inquiries: (i) what are the problems the private security officers are supposed to remedy? (ii) to what extent are they remedied? Method and data: To address the research question posed, I adopted a mixed method design, tailored to engage the two parts of the examination sequentially. Initially, I conducted a qualitative content analysis considering what the problems were and how they were represented within documents containing the municipal’s application of permit and the police authority’s basis of approval. This laid the foundation of my quantitative effect study. I applied one of the strongest quasi-experimental methods in terms of validity: the interrupted time series design, to consider the second part of my examination. These approaches were applied to two separate but similar cases, in effect, adopting a multiple-case methodology using a literal replication logic. Results: This thesis shows that the problems the private security officers patrolling public spaces are intended to remedy are: high levels of criminal activity, the public’s fears and worries, and disturbances to order, with a premium on criminal activity. More importantly, the results indicate that it is by primarily reducing criminal activity, the other problems are addressed. This positions the intervention within the ‘Hot spot policing’ paradigm. As such, my effect study considered exclusively if significant reductions in crime were attained during the interventions of the four most pressing crime types. Only one case showed significant reductions in crime, but only in two models. These models could not account for the effect of the Covid – 19 pandemic and one had issues with multicollinearity, questioning the validity of the results. Two interpretations are suggested: either characteristics of place matter when ii devising a hot-spot policing intervention using private security or the intervention is ineffective in reducing crime. The results and both interpretations are discussed and recommendations for future studies are suggested.