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Outspoken in his efforts to win information sharing from the Federal Government is Ira Lipman, president of Memphis-based Guardsmark, which many security experts consider the best national firm in the business. While the industry's trade group, the Committee of National Security Companies (CONSCO), supports Lipman's call for access, some of his competitors have effectively blocked legislation that might upgrade overall industry standards but would also increase costs and thus threaten profits. A bill they especially detest, recently introduced by Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Jr., would require minimum levels of screening and training for all guards hired by the Federal Government, as well as criminal-records checks and psychological testing. "Why the hell do we need the Federal Government in here?" explodes Pinkerton's president Albert Berger. "It's an invasion of what the states should be doing. Just because Lipman ((like Gore)) is in Tennessee ((the state Gore represents)) is the only reason why the bill exists."
In New York, where even beauticians and real estate brokers are licensed, more than a dozen bills have been floated since 1976 to license or regulate security guards. Industry lobbyists helped kill them all. Last year the industry finally supported a watered-down bill, which died amid political infighting over how to spend the measly $3 million raised from application fees. "The reason there's been no legislation is that no one's been willing to continually fight for it," says state senator Christopher Mega, the bill's sponsor. "If they ((CONSCO)) are not easy to get along with, that's their problem. It's going to have to be done. It's 15 years overdue."
The disturbing aspect of the uneven regulation and management of the industry is the rate at which private firms are taking over responsibilities once assigned to police forces -- ambulance services, parking regulations, neighborhood patrols, even background investigations for federal job applicants. In Kansas City the chief of police says he would like to contract with private firms to perform 22 tasks currently being done by the cops -- at an estimated 37% savings in cost. These tasks include transporting prisoners, assisting stranded motorists and guarding crime scenes. Similarly, to save money, armed Wackenhut guards have replaced sheriff's deputies on commuter trains in Miami and Palm Beach, Fla.
The risks in this trend are considerable: unlike sworn officers, most security guards are not required to inform suspects of their Miranda rights or to obey the Fourth Amendment's restraint on searches. Moreover, the trend toward privatization raises important public-policy issues. "What ever happened to equal protection for all?" asks Harvard criminologist Mark Moore. "If public policing can be bought, then the rich will receive more than the poor. In the end, the public force will erode into a poor people's force." And unless the industry cleans up its own procedures, even rich clients may find themselves the victims of those they have hired to protect them.