The Police Journal

摘要

A recent headline story in a national newspaper has served to highlight the steady expansion of the private sector in the delivery of police services in England and Wales. Concern has arisen from the fact that many of those employed by private sector companies are not subject to oversight by the IPCC and are therefore not made effectively accountable for what they do (or fail to do). The same report was to draw attention to both the companies contracted and numbers employed by them to provide services formerly the immediate responsibility of the police. It noted with apparent surprise that Reliance Security and G4S have together, for example, over 1,000 staff working in custody suites across 16 police forces and that the employment of privately contracted officers can be expected to expand rapidly (Lakhani, 2011).