The Effects of Privatization on Public Services: A Historical Evaluation Approach

What is the evidence about the impact of privatization on public resources? Using home security systems as a case study and historical evaluation as a method, I reexamine the assumption that the growth of a private security industry has reduced demands of wealthier citizens on public police and the public purse. Evaluation evidence based on historical research casts serious doubt on whether the apparent creation of a parallel, private system is in fact resulting in reduced demand for public services. The sections that follow illustrate how observers who view private security in opposition to public police do not account for areas like alarm response, where the private and public sectors have a cooperative, if ambivalent, relationship (Cunningham and Taylor, 1985). Security devices may symbolize privatization and withdrawal, yet alarm users’ demand for service from public police in fact remains high. Thus, while privatization is described as a “retreat of the state” (Swann, 1988), evaluation evidence in this case reveals that the state does not retreat. The case of alarms offers a vivid account of the unexpected consequences of privatization. This article has five sections. Section One presents the common wisdom on privatization from a prominent group of social observers. I call their perspectives “fortress narratives.” Section Two cross-examines these fortress narratives. Evaluation questions from the history of technology help us to assess critically their claims about social change and begin the search for contrary evidence. Section Three uncovers several contradictions in the privatization of security. I juxtapose fortress narratives with new information from historical