Private security and urban crime mitigation

Abstract

This article identifies Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) as new actors of urban policing and analyzes the relatively unknown contribution of their security divisions to public safety. Over the past two decades, property owners and corporate leaders in hundreds of business districts across the United States have banded together to change people’s negative perceptions about downtown. Contrary to all appearances, BIDs have not established a private crimefighting force, but instead have strived to eliminate all signs of physical and behavioral disorders to prevent crime and reassure the public. In doing so, the private sector has implemented the principles of the broken windows theory even before they influenced American policing. This innovative and non-confrontational approach that BIDs have opted for explains why police departments and debt-ridden municipalities have tolerated and sometimes even encouraged the intrusion of private security into public space.