Handbook on Public and Private Security

This Handbook discusses the use of public-private partnerships in law enforcement and security. Written by international experts across multiple disciplines, chapters include case studies and cross-sectional industry-wide studies of private security performance in comparison with public police and collaborated experiences of the two sectors. The Handbook uses existing experiences and public economics to suggest how to improve security and social welfare through greater competition and cooperation between public and private security. This volume provides an integrated framework to assist policymakers in both public and private agencies. This Handbook will be an important reference for scholars in public economics, public administration, criminology, and criminal justice, as well as professionals and policymakers in the public and private sectors.

Erwin A. Blackstone has taught economics in the US for over forty years. Dr. Blackstone holds an A.B. in economics from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to his current appointment at Temple, Dr. Blackstone taught at Dartmouth College and Cornell University. His research areas include the economics of industrial organization, health economics, economics of crime, and privatization. He has published on a variety of industrial organization topics including mergers, dominance, reciprocal buying, collusion, and damages. He has published articles on a wide variety of health issues including physicians, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals. In privatization he has published articles on such topics as private police and response to burglar alarms. His publications include over sixty articles in major economics and public policy journals, chapters in books, edited books, monographs, and a book on the electronic security industry. Dr. Blackstone has taught courses from the introductory to the Ph.D. level. In 1976, he received the Clark Award for distinguished teaching at Cornell and at Temple, the Andrisani-Frank Award for Excellence in teaching in 2001 and the Musser Excellence in Leadership Award for Teaching in 2006.

Simon Hakim is professor of economics and the director of the Center for Competitive Government at Temple University, US. He holds M.A and Ph.D. degrees in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He also earned a M.Sc.  in City and Regional Planning from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His special areas of research and teaching are privatization and Public-Private-Partnerships, economics of crime and security, private/public police, and homeland security. Dr. Hakim has published sixty-six scientific articles in leading economic, criminal justice, security, and public policy journals. He has written over forty professional articles and written/edited twenty-one books. Dr. Hakim has conducted several funded research and consulting projects on PPP, security, and public finance issues for the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor, National Institute of Justice, Volunteers of America, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Independent Institute, the Alarm Industry Research and Education Foundation, cities like Philadelphia, Newark, and New-Castle County, DE, the Philadelphia International Airport, ADT Security, Vector Security, the private corrections industry, Institute for Humane Studies, law firms, and other leading security companies.

Brian Meehan is an Associate Professor of Economics at Berry College, US. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Florida State University. His published research focuses on the economics of crime, occupational licensing, and public choice economics. He also serves as a research affiliate with the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation at West Virginia University.