New study shows direction and strength of private security industry
Charlotte NC November 18, 2018
A new report commissioned by Private Officer International and researched and compiled by a Washington DC group was released last week and shows the strength and the direction of the private security industry.
The Private Security Services research report was a meticulous look into how the security services market is developing and where its growth is expected to come from.
In the report, the private security services business which covered both the physical active use of manpower and the use of passive electronic means of protecting property and lives.
Private security service revenue growth spiked during the years of 2003 through 2018 and will continue to be driven by heightened security concerns stemming from a large number of highly publicized tragedies, such as school shootings and bombings.
Similarly, the rising perceived risk of all types of crimes, especially in areas of property damage, burglaries, thefts, and fraud will be among the triggers for increased physical security.
Although previous FBI crimes reports indicated that violent crime such as robberies, sex assaults, and murders was down, the latest 2017 FBI national crime statistics report indicated that violent crimes are again rising and that there are fewer law enforcement officers available to combat the rising violence.
In 2017, an estimated 1,247,321 violent crimes occurred nationwide.
Additionally, there has been an increased interest in the use of a wide variety of advanced technical security capabilities and tools that offer customers value-added protection in most security service segments and will provide a boost to revenues.
Currently, the private security industry boasts revenues of more than one hundred and sixty billion dollars according to capital investment groups and those revenues will see sharp increases during the next ten years.
While many Global Private Security Services such as G4S, Pinkerton, Blackwater Protection, Allied Universal, US Security Associates, Andrews International, and others garner the largest share of the security services market today, other regional security agencies have had much success during the past twenty years with grabbing large regional or localized market shares.
And while market competition by top national and international companies will continue to be fierce, smaller companies who are specialized and offer unique services such as school and hospital security, Â marijuana industry protection, alarm response, business patrols, event security, parking enforcement and private policing are making headway and grabbing up high-valued, long-term contracts.
Executive/VIP Protection, Residential Protection, Executive Drivers, Technical Surveillance Countermeasure (TSCM) Services are also becoming highly sought-after services by executives and the high-profile elite.
The study also showed an increase in the use of private security services, electronics, and physical manpower, by public entities and governments including local, state and federal agencies.
 Numerous community governments and public-school systems have gone from providing public law enforcement to secure their schools, parks, courts and facilities, to contracting those services to private security agencies to reduce budgets and free up law enforcement to put them back into policing roles especially in cities where police departments are understaffed in some cases there are dozens and even hundreds of police openings that continue to go unfilled.
Another area of the report indicated that the electronic security field is also seeing great growth for both the residential and commercial end users with an emphasis on the combined use of physical and electronic protection jointly with verified alarm response support services from uniform security agencies.
Overall the report concluded that the private security industry will continue to be an important part of the national job growth and that there is plenty of room for entrepreneurs interested in the protection business to enter the field and have successful businesses.
The need for various services and products of the private security field isn’t going away any time soon and that the industry is strong and profitable.
