ivities that used to belong solely to the domain of police are now handled by a mixture of police and private enterprise. For example, in San Diego, California, there are private firms which handle non-emergency calls. This is occurring not only because as the population continues to grow so do the number of activities that require police attention, but also because there is a growing trend toward the disillusion of boundaries between the public and private sector: “In both the West and the East there has emerged a continuum of control, a division of policing labor and an extension of traditional reliance on informal resolution of control and conflict problems. In short, much of the activity of the agents and the agencies on this continuum of control takes place outside the state domain, being private or informal, with priorities largely dictated by profit, self-interest or community/mutual benefits. Globally, societies variously differing in composition, government and politics maybe characterized as embracing a mixed economy of control” (Francis, Davies and Jupp 105).
One form of privatized policing that has proven to be quite effective are private patrols. Private patrols are companies who for a fee make a contract with homeowners to surveil and protect their personal property and the well being of them and their family. Some wealthy communities, like Bel Aire, California have their own private patrol system which monitors the entire community. Homeowners pay a fee and security personnel in private patrol cars surveil the neighborhood and respond to any calls or alarms on behalf of the homeowner. With the example of private patrols, we can see how the lines between public and private sector are blurring when it comes to the American criminal justice system. With private patrols, individuals sometimes must forego intrusions into their personal space that public police patrols would not have a right to invade. Howeve...