The Growth of Privatized Policing; N. Elliott

61 The Growth of Privatized Policing by Nicholas Elliott P rivatized police! The suggestion is usually . met with disbelief,even by free-marketeers who would like most other government services shifted into the private sector. But there are good arguments to justify privatization of at least some policing functions, and few are proba bly aware of the spread of privatized policing that has been taking place both in the United States and in Britain. Many object to private sector involvement in policing and criminal justice because they say that it is the state's responsibility to maintain law and order. This view fails to take into account the ori gins of rights. In liberal democracies, rights are considered to reside originally with individuals. The responsibility of law enforcement is only ced ed to the state so that rights may be protected more effectively.The state does not own the right to enforce the law, it administers this right on behalf of the people. Therefore, there is no reason in principle why private individuals should not have law enforcement duties delegated to them, as long as they are responsible to the same system of law under which the state operates. This point has been argued by James Stewart, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Justice: "Although law enforcement is rooted in constitutional principles, the responsibility of government to ensure security need not necessarily mean that government must provide all the protective services itself."l Nicholas Elliott is a financial journalist in London, and an associate scholar of the Adam Smith Institute.