The private sector : [electronic resource] private spies, rent-a-cops, and the police-industrial complex / by George O'Toole.

Bibliography: p. 230-232.

Includes index.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Law and Order, Inc. -- 2. The giants -- 3. Company cops and corporate counterspies -- 4. The telephone cops -- 5. The secret listeners -- 6. Four private eyes -- 7. Private clubs, secret societies, and vigilance committee -- 8. The lords of the files -- 9. The hardware merchants -- 10. Breaking and entering -- 11. Private eyes and politicians -- 12. The police-industrial complex -- Bibliography -- Index.

This exploration of private police and private security organizations considers their backgrounds, their methods, their equipment, and their relationship to public scrutiny and the law. The term 'private sector' includes any individual or group involved with law enforcement or security, but lacking official police authority. Several surveys report that over 40 percent of all corporate security officers are former policemen, former intelligence agents, or other veterans of public law enforcement. The private sector is obscured from public control. It is stated that private security organizations have records on nearly all American citizens, wiretaps are used illegally, and the private forces will do practically anything that they are paid for. Various incidents with private security guards are cited, providing examples of persons tried for false arrest, several unwarranted assaults, and mafia connections with detective agencies. The historical development of the major private security companies, including Pinkerton, William Burns International Security Services, and the Wackenhut Corporation, is traced. Corporate activities in the security field are discussed, particularly in regard to theft of commercial plans, new processes, and trade secrets. The increase of telephone fraud has necessitated the need for some type of telephone policing, therefore telephone companies are permitted to install wiretaps without court orders. This has led to the installation of illegal wiretaps as well. Telephone company wiretappers have been hired by private individuals or companies to install their own private wiretaps. The use of other types of taps and bugs is discussed. The experiences of several well-known private investigators are included, along with discussions of some of the famous cases they solved. Secret societies of ex-policemen and ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are described. A discussion of private sector information files is included. The manufacturing of weapons, chemical sprays, and other gadgets used by private security organizations are examined. Breaking and entering and other procedures used by the private forces are also discussed. It is concluded that the operations of these private security organizations are very dangerous. They have equipment, manpower, and expertise to carry out investigations of any kind.