Security police

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Security police are those persons, employed by or for a governmental agency, who provide police and security services to those agencies' properties.

Security police protect their agency's facilities, properties, personnel, users, visitors and operations from harm and may enforce certain laws and administrative regulations. Most security police have at least some arrest authority. The law enforcement powers of security police vary widely, in some cases limited to those of private persons yet in others amounting to full police powers equivalent to state, provincial, or local law enforcement.

As distinct from general law enforcement, the primary focus of security police is on the protection of specific properties and persons. This causes some overlap with functions normally performed by security guards. However, security police are distinguished from guards by greater authority, often higher levels of training, and correspondingly higher expectations of performance in the protection of life and property.

Types of security police and similar organizations

Security police may include:

Campus police, who are often hired and sworn in as state law enforcement officers, such as the Los Angeles School Police Department or City University of New York Public Safety Department

Housing police, such as the New York City Housing Authority Police Department, who protect publicly owned housing or "housing projects"

Airport police such as the Los Angeles Airport Police

Hospital police such as the New York City Department of Health and Hospitals Police

Park police, with full state police officer powers such as the New York State Park Police, who primarily protect the often vast properties of their employing agency

Certain federal police agencies such as the U.S. Capitol Police, whose officers are sworn in as federal law enforcement officers with the duty to provide police and security services to federally owned buildings

Capitol police, who protect state properties such as legislative and executive buildings, which can also include executive protection functions

County police, such as the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety, who provide full, limited or restricted services to local governments

Special police, in the protection of public properties, such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which is protected by sworn Special Police Officers as authorized by D.C. Code, § 4-114 (1981)

Court officers, such as New York State Court Officers, who provide police and security services at court houses

Company police to provide security police services on company or private property by contract, where local law permits private organizations to contract for police powers; this for example includes railway police

Legal authority of security police

All security police derive their authority from two sources:

1) the laws of their nation, territory and/or municipality

2) the property rights of their employing or contracting agency or activity, which may be public or private or a mixture of both

These powers might include the power to detain, arrest, investigate criminal offenses, carry weapons, employ force, and/or take other actions to protect life and property beyond that of the ordinary citizen. One key distinction is between "sworn" (or bound by oath or affirmation to uphold the laws even at personal risk), and "non-sworn" or "civilian" who are ordinary employees with normal obligations to an employer.

Some security police are full-fledged peace officers with the same powers as regular police. Others have enhanced powers which are limited by law to the properties they protect, or a specified radius or distance. In some cases these powers are expanded by a Memorandum of Understanding or other legal document where other policing agencies delegate additional powers to enforce local law.

Some security police have the more limited powers of security guards in compliance with the laws of their jurisdiction.

These distinctions are of particular importance to security police and their employers.