Samenvatting

Various Dutch municipalities hire municipal law enforcement officers from private security companies. This process of outsourcing sometimes meets political resistance, because safety and security are central tasks of government that should not be carried out by commercial parties. At the same time, little is known about the actual pros and cons of private law enforcement officers in relation to their public colleagues. From the literature we expect differences in cost, flexibility, local knowledge, professional autonomy, job satisfaction and cooperation with the police. Our empirical research shows that these differences are smaller than initially assumed. Private law enforcement officers work longer hours under more or less the same working conditions (salary) as public law enforcement officers. Their turnover rate is also higher compared to public law enforcement officers, because of their lower career expectations. Overhead costs, including the costs of outsourcing processes, remain unknown.