Policing – without the police

But the former Gulf War soldier is now overseeing patrols in the Essex seaside town by his private security force. It’s policing. Without the police.

His men wear hi-vis jackets, the patrol cars have a cluster of flashing lights on the roof and a police-style chequer pattern on their sides.

Around 400 householders in the area now pay AGS security £2 a week per household to patrol the streets each evening, from 7pm until 7am.

Since he started operations two and a half months ago, Mr Beardsley says his team has assisted police with arrests and held a man causing trouble in a restaurant under citizens arrest, as well as acting as a deterrent to trouble-makers.

His Frinton beat has hit national headlines over the past week and since then his business has been inundated with requests to provide security patrols for other areas.

Last month, Hampstead residents discussed plans to raise £200,000 to pay for their own police officers to patrol the streets and it has been reported that a Hampshire village has offered to pay for its own bobby.

The rise in interest in private security comes as Chancellor George Osborne is about to announce a new round of cuts to the country’s police forces in his autumn statement on November 25.

But Mr Beardsley is cautious about what householders can expect from his and other security firms who launch private patrols.

“I think this sort of thing is more likely to happen across the
country.

“There are security businesses already running custody suites and answering 999 calls. As for mobile patrolling, I can see it happening more with the right controls, you don’t want rogue companies setting up, acting like policemen.

“We are not policemen. Our aim is to work with the police and the authorities and not against them. We want to be accountable to them.

“Anything the police want us to do, we are willing to undertake.

“There is a future for private security enterprise to be involved as long as it is done in the right way.

“No security firm will have the power of arrest – and quite rightly.”

Greg Kelly Former Cumbria police detective Greg Kelly is now director at Ultimate Security and Investigations in Carlisle.

His business provides a range of security duties, including patrols of business and industrial suites and mobile patrols that visit certain premises.

He says carrying out street patrols in Cumbria is something he would be interested in.

But he insists that any such agreement would have to be met with caution.

“It is not something we are doing at the moment and we have not been approached by anyone in the county, but there is no reason why not,” he says.

“There may well be a place for them, if the community understands what they can and cannot do.

“Whoever provides such security would have to explain to the community that are paying for it there are limits to the service and they are not police officers and do not have the distinct powers of arrest the police have.

“But they could act as a preventive measure. They can observe, take note and intervene if necessary.

“As an ex-police officer, I can see a potential danger if people expect security officers to do what a police officer does.

“There was a some talk a few years ago of giving private companies the chance to train up police community support officers (PCSOs), that could be a halfway house between private firms and the police.”

Jerry Graham Cumbria’s Chief Constable Jerry Graham warned that his force faced losing beat bobbies if cuts were made in Government grant and in the Government’s funding allocation.

Police Minister Mike Penning has stalled plans to alter the funding package after admitting civil servants had miscalculated the figures.

But forces across the country still face major cuts in their budgets over the next four years.

And Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes says funding changes could still be introduced in a year’s time.

He understands an “instinctive reaction” by some people to fear the effects of the cuts and try to do something for themselves.

But he says there is no danger of resources dwindling so badly in Cumbria that private firms will be needed here any time soon – and Cumbrians would not want to pay extra for the service.

“Cumbrians already pay one of the highest council tax precepts for policing in the whole of the country,” he explains.

“They would be reluctant to pay more for a policing service for which they already pay taxes.”

Mr Rhodes says the Cumbrian force does need to explain more clearly what the police precept of the council tax actually pays for, to make householders more aware of what their policing entails.

He is writing to Mr Penning to review what policing costs – and he is also inviting him up to the county to see what the force does for himself.

“We need a radical independent review. We can’t rely on the Home Office any more.”

Private security patrols have operated for years in certain communities in the US, Australia and South Africa.

Usually gated communities.

And we are then in danger of two tier policing where only the well-off can afford patrols and to keep the threat of crime from their streets.

Those who don’t have the money, will be left at the mercy of criminals.

Stewart Young Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young fears so.

He says: “I can’t think of a worse idea really, than private policing.

“If you can afford to pay extra money for a private security guard, you can afford to pay extra tax for proper public services.

“Everyone should contribute by how much they can afford, then you provide services for the whole community.

“You have to ask yourself what sort of society are we turning into where we have the ‘haves’ which are a small minority, and the ‘have-nots’ which is the majority.”

Mr Young says in Britain we police with the consent and support of wider society, but that is put at risk by some people employing a private security force.

“We could end up like America with security forces getting armed because they are not policing with the support of the majority of the community.

“It would be terrible to lose that, if security services became more like a militia and wee there just to protect the interests of the wealthy elite.”

The planned cuts in police spending are likely to bring more work the way of Mr Beardsley and other security firms.

But he says: “At the end of the day, the story is not about us, it is about the police cuts.

“The police do a fantastic job and they are getting crucified by cuts. It is not right.”