California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Sunset Amusement Co. v. Board of Police Commissioners, 101 Cal.Rptr. 768, 496 P.2d 840, 7 Cal.3d 64 (Cal. 1972):
That portion of the majority opinion which implies the need for private policing can be expected to have a mushrooming impact: licensing agencies will feel free to deny permit renewals on the ground that the licensee has not adequately supervised public property in the area outside of its establishment. In turn, licensees, in order to remain in business, will find it necessary to hire external roving security guards. When viewed in the factual context of this case, such guards will undoubtedly play a significant role in the handling of tumultuous disturbances involving vast numbers of people, perhaps even facilitating, or hampering, massive arrests. This will be undertaken even though private police seldom possess the skills or receive the specialized training available to regular local law enforcement personnel. The potential effect which private police operations, performing a public function on public property, might have on the constitutional safeguards protecting individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, coerced confessions and on those rights enunciated in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, and related high court cases, is unsettling.
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