Private Policing examines the origins of private policing, the growing literature that has sought to explain its growth, and ways in which it has been defined and classified.

The second edition of Private Policing details the substantial involvement of private agents and organisations involved in policing beyond the public police. It develops a taxonomy of policing and explores in depth each of the main categories, examining the degree of privateness, amongst several other issues. The main categories include the public police; hybrid policing such as state policing bodies, specialised police forces and non-governmental organisations; voluntary policing; and the private security industry. This book explores how the public police and many other state bodies have significant degrees of privateness, from outright privatisation through to the serving of private interests. The book provides a theoretical framework for private policing, building upon the growing base of scholarship in this area. Fully revised, this new edition not only brings the old edition up to date with the substantial scholarship since 2002, but also provides more international context and several new chapters on: corporate security management, security officers, and private investigation. There is also a consideration of what the book calls the ‘new private security industry’ working largely in cyber-space. Bringing together research from a wide range of projects the author has been involved with, along with the growing body of private policing scholarship, the book shows the substantial involvement of non-public police bodies in policing and highlights a wide range of issues for debate and further research. Private Policing is ideal reading for students of policing and security courses, academics with an interest in private policing and security, and practitioners from security and policing.

Les Johnston argues that policing, far from being the preserve of public personnel, is in fact performed by a mixture of public, private, and quasi-public agents. He reviews the history of private policing and examines its implications.

Private law enforcement and order maintenance have usually been seen as working against or outside of state authority. A History of Private Policing in the United States surveys private policing since the 1850s to the present, arguing that private agencies have often served as a major component of authority in America as an auxiliary of the state. Wilbur R. Miller defines private policing broadly to include self-defense, stand your ground laws, and vigilantism, as well as private detectives, security guards and patrols from gated community security to the Guardian Angels. He also covers the role of detective agencies in controlling labor organizing through spies, guards and strikebreakers. A History of Private Policing in the United States is an overview integrating various components of private policing to place its history in the context of the development of the American state.

these are just two of the issues addressed by Les Johnston, who argues that policing, far from being the exclusive preserve of public personnel, is an activity undertaken by a mixture of public, private, and quasi-public agents. His book reviews the history of private policing, examines developments of current concern, and finally considers the implications of these developments both for the sociology of policing and for a more general understanding of public-private relations in the late 20th century.

Private Security and Public Policing offers an analysis of the concepts of public and private policing, it analyzes activities of "policing" bodies, and offers a reconceptualization of "policing" in the modern era.

Private law enforcement and order maintenance have usually been seen as working against or outside of state authority. A History of Private Policing in the United States surveys private policing since the 1850s to the present, arguing that private agencies have often served as a major component of authority in America as an auxiliary of the state. Wilbur R. Miller defines private policing broadly to include self-defense, stand your ground laws, and vigilantism, as well as private detectives, security guards and patrols from gated community security to the Guardian Angels. He also covers the role of detective agencies in controlling labor organizing through spies, guards and strikebreakers. A History of Private Policing in the United States is an overview integrating various components of private policing to place its history in the context of the development of the American state.