There are many differences between the two, some of which I'll be talking about in this essay. Through the duration of this essay, I will explain about the act that controls private policing and what rights it gives, the difference between private and public policing, the growth of the private policing industry, and finally the public view on private policing.
The private agent act controls the private police. It gives them the same rights as an ordinary citizen, no more and no less. They have what is known as a quasi power-they can exercise the same powers as the public police force, but they are not legally entitled to do that. This means that they can arrest a person by non-legal means as they are not exactly supposed to arrest people. The act also gives private policemen the power to teach other people how to become private policemen. However, to do that, they must have a special license. Private policemen are only responsible for the people that pay them. They do not have a public responsibility. The private agent act does not give the policemen the right to sue; only an employer has that right.
Under the private agent act, a security officer can only arrest a person if they catch that person doing something that breaks the law. Even then, they are only responsible for the one building that they are paid to secure and no other buildings.
Public policing differs from private policing in many different ways. Firstly, public policing is responsible for the public, as the name suggests. Public police are responsible for patrolling different areas, suburbs, even subway stations. They have to monitor these places for criminal activity. Public police cover broad areas not just one single house.
Private security agents are only responsible for one building. That building is the one that the landlord pays them to protect. Unlike public police, private policemen do not patrol a whole suburb; just the house that they are meant to protect.
