Political Science

Security is a need that should be provided to every individual after the provision of all basic needs.  In fact, once one has acquired sufficient basic need satisfaction, they tend to be advanced in term of economic status and life styles.  It is worth noting that at this level the individuals are wealthy or relatively rich as compared to the common citizen and their basic requirement at this level is security to guard their personal security and property security. 

Security can be provided by public security agencies or private security agencies.  Private security providers have their own advantages and disadvantages.  Usually, private security firms are contracted to provide security to the hiring firm of individual thus they work in under contract basis.  The security is provided under signed contract so as to secure the firms property, or personal property or to guard the home compound or even to secure business premises (George, 2006).

The private security sector consists of private investigators, retail detectives, security guards, and body guards.  The disadvantage of this security provision companies is that their training skills and technology is low.  The different security officers of the private sector have inadequate policing command.  They also need to be licensed agencies which are inspected for their provision.  The lack of enough training is the major point of contention in the private security sector. Their level of training does not upgrade sustainability to the job retention strategies as they are in the public sector.  Their competence is low because limited exposure to strict training environment (Friedman, Fisher, 1997).  They also work on contract basis and are therefore paid on performance contract, which means that they may always be subjected to contract termination.

However, Service delivery in the private security sector is quality because the individual officers are paid on performance basis thus they are motivated to work hard and diligently.  Their salaries can be negotiated according to their performance and they could have their services terminated if they are none performing. Most of the private security firms are not limited in funding their projects because they reallocate their budget considerations depending on the market need for their security service provision (David, William, 1995).  The officers are accessible to new technology but their training strategies are below the public sector level.  This sector is rarely short of working equipment since this depends on the security provision needs.

On the other hand, the public sector security provision body which is usually a government has quality training of staff.  Their job retention is on permanent basis and the security officers may not be motivated to perform because their salaries are not negotiable. The public security sector officers are covered by the law of the country and hindered by restrictions to access the latest technological advancements.  Their inability to access the advanced technology is due to their reliance on the government funds and budget allocations. However, the public sector policing are ever understaffed (John, Ian, 2004). The sole reliance of on the public sector may be problematic for individuals and firms that have high investment projects that need extra security provision.

Finally, although the private sector security officers are not as qualified in training as the ones in the public sector, they are highly needed because of their performance and good service delivery. Another reason as to why the private sector policing would be required is because that public sector police may not satisfy the market since they are understaffed calling for hiring of private security by investment firms and individual.