Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Volume 13 Issue 2 Article 2 Summer 2006 The Forgotten Threat: Private Policing and the State Elizabeth E. Joh University of California, Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Joh, Elizabeth E. (2006) "The Forgotten Threat: Private Policing and the State," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 2. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol13/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Forgotten Threat: Private Policing and the State ELIZABETH E. JOH* ABSTRACT What do Disneyland, the Abu Ghraib U.S. military prison, the Mall ofAmerica, and the Y-12 nuclear security complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee have in common? They have wildly different purposes, but they share a common characteristicas em- ployers of private police. This answer-indicativeof the prevalence and numbers of privatepolice today-would have struck the nineteenth -century observer as evidence of a grossfailure by the state. Yet that reaction, in turn, would seem odd to us. Vocal support of private police can be found among public police chiefs, lawmakers, and even PresidentBush. What kinds of criticisms were once leveled at private police by public officials? How did one attitude, deeply skeptical of private police, evolve into another that sees heavy reliance upon private policing as beneficial, or at least benign? Here, I take a fiesh look at the dynamics ofthat change, and by doing so, restore to theirproperplace fundamental questions about the use of police who are privatelyfinanced and orga- nized in a democraticsociety.