The rise of private security in Canada, and why it should concern us

Has Canada become more dangerous over the past eight years?

In 2015 and 2016, the number of private, licensed security guards in Ontario hovered at just under 70,000. By 2022, the most recent numbers released by the province, that number had exploded to 123,987. In contrast, the number of police officers in the entire country in 2022 was 70,566, per StatsCan. Did our private security needs really increase by 80% in a period of just six years, or does this point to a deeper issue?

Often times, it can be difficult to distinguish private security from the police. Private security guards often wear similar uniforms, including ballistic or stab resistant vests, carry equipment like handcuffs, and drive cars which have decals similar in style to the police services. Some of these companies even buy the same model cars that are used by the local police service (think all black Ford Explorers with white decals.)

Last month, in Seattle, a shopper at Walgreens was threatened by a private security guard wearing two badges, handcuffs, and several guns. He accused the shopper of stealing and threatened her with jail. You can’t tell me the difference between police and private security in 2024 doesn’t feel like a 2013 Robin Thicke hit.

These private companies are attempting to co-opt the representational power of the state to intimidate. The goal is to confuse the public about the difference between the two.  

We should not take representation lightly. The police function of the state should be taken with utmost seriousness. A police badge and cruiser are reminders that the state will assert its authority with the barrel of a gun. They represent the force that comes with law.

Private security guards, meanwhile, have no more authority than property owners themselves, and exist for a completely different reason. They are there to prop up, in most cases, another private business. In 2024, private security is most often hired to patrol businesses and ensure homeless people don’t start camping nearby.

The private sector solution to homelessness stops at the property line.   

On this issue, we often try to apply “band-aid solutions” that provide no real change. If you are a private business and hire private security for the above reason, you may be able to get as far as “I have solved homelessness for me, on my property.” But we should take a look at the lengths we will go to in order not to address this problem.

Would the economic cost of over 100,000 private security guards not be better spent on more long-term thinking? I often encounter security guards that don’t even look up from their phones as I pass by. The appearance of security is now being prioritized over addressing the reason security is hired in the first place. It’s backward thinking at its finest.

The growth of the private security state should concern us because it makes a claim for state power on behalf of business. This intentional blurring of lines by private security companies who mimic police should be outlawed. We would see far more benefits if we instead allocated resources to address more fundamental public issues like homelessness.