Critical workers? Private security, public perceptions and the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

This article is among the first to explore the role and status of the private security industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Focussing on the UK case, it illustrates how even though most private security officers were designated as ‘critical workers’ in this time of crisis, performing a range of functions essential to national infrastructure and law and order, the public have been slow or reluctant to recognise the contribution of the sector. It argues that this disposition is reflective of a longstanding public ambivalence or unease towards the private security industry which can ultimately be traced to the state-centric sociological terrain of the policing field.