Across the United States, a growing reliance on private security firms is reshaping the landscape of public safety. As police departments face staffing shortages, and increasing scrutiny, businesses, neighborhoods, and even gas stations and hotels are turning to heavily armed private security guards to fill roles once held by sworn officers. An article published by TIME in 2023, titled "Private Security Guards Are Replacing Police Across America," highlights this accelerating trend and the concerns it raises around regulation, accountability, and social equity, as what was once a core government responsibility is now increasingly outsourced to private agencies.

The following sections explore the key dimensions driving and complicating this trend:

1. Police Staffing Shortages and Slower Response Times

One of the main drivers behind the rise of private security in the U.S. is the growing crisis in police staffing and response times. After the 2020 murder of George Floyd and nationwide protests, police departments faced waves of retirements and resignations, leading to longer response times and reduced police presence.

Cities like New Orleans, Nashville, Portland, New York, and Seattle have all seen increased police response times, though the scale varies. In New Orleans, response times nearly tripled—from 51 minutes in 2019 to 146 minutes in 2022. In New York, they rose from 18 to 33 minutes.

As security analyst Jeff Asher notes, these examples are just a snapshot, but the national trend is clear: police are less available, and private security is stepping in.

  • FBI data shows sworn officers declined 7% between 2019 and 2021.
  • Over the past 20 years, the number of security guards in the U.S. has doubled, while the population grew just 16%.
  • By 2021, there were 3.1 security guards per 1,000 civilians, compared to 2 police officers per 1,000 civilians.

2. Safety for Some: The Economic Divide

The rise of private security is not just filling gaps in public safety—it’s also widening economic inequality. Access to private protection is largely reserved for those who can afford it, reinforcing divisions between wealthier and lower-income communities. Affluent areas can layer on extra security, while many underserved neighborhoods must rely on increasingly stretched and underfunded public police. Private guards are now hired for everything from patrolling gas stations to escorting children to the movies—often armed with shotguns. Security is becoming a commodity, where safety can be purchased by the wealthy and remains out of reach for many others.

3. Regulation Gaps and Accountability Questions

Unlike police officers, private guards often operate under fragmented oversight, inconsistent training, and vague legal authority. Regulation varies by state, and about 30 states allow private citizens—including security guards—to be trained as private police officers with full arrest powers, though typically limited to the properties they protect.

Aldo Toledo, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, highlights San Francisco’s 10B program, which allows off-duty police officers to take on private security jobs for businesses and events. The program has been widely used by major companies like Walgreens, Safeway, and the San Francisco Giants. Supporters say it boosts security, but critics warn it diverts police from underserved areas and creates serious conflicts of interest, with some officers reportedly calling in sick to work private shifts.

4. More Than a Policing Issue: The Broader Privatization Trend

The rise of private security is part of a much broader—and long-standing—pattern of shifting power from public institutions to private, profit-driven entities. Moves to privatize veteran healthcare, Medicare, the National Weather Service, and even the mortgage backbone of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suggest this shift runs much deeper than simple outsourcing.

Examples include:

  • Private military contractors (mercenaries) have been replacing national armies for decades.
  • Private prisons with quotas that incentivize incarceration.
  • Airport-style security and surveillance fueled by private intelligence firms.
  • Cryptocurrencies challenging state control over currency.

Cullen Murphy, in The Atlantic's “Feudalism Is Our Future,” warns that this growing privatization—from prisons and military services to postal and weather systems—mirrors the fragmented, hierarchical structures of medieval feudalism.

He draws on historian Ramsay MacMullen’s study of Rome’s collapse, particularly how outsourcing key government functions led to systemic erosion and power consolidation—where “fewer have more” became the norm. When public authority is distanced from execution, the chain of accountability breaks, weakening state power.

Some critics warn this trend is creating a “neo-feudal” or “techno-feudal” system, where private companies are not just service providers but also control layers of governance, security, and infrastructure—reducing public oversight.

A Global Corporate Rule

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a uniquely American dilemma, it’s part of a global pattern. Corporations, not governments, are increasingly steering the course of public life

Globally, corporations are surpassing governments in wealth and influence. According to Global Justice Now, 157 of the world’s 200 richest entities are now corporations, not states. These corporations exploit vast international tax loopholes, leverage trade policies that prioritize their growth, and routinely evade accountability by operating across jurisdictions, often outpacing the regulatory capacity of national governments. As Friends of the Earth noted, “Many corporations are richer and more powerful than the states that seek to regulate them."

Historian William Dalrymple draws parallels between today's corporate giants and the East India Company—a private corporation, chartered by the Crown, that fielded its own army, toppled governments, and administered vast territories in pursuit of profit and the expansion of British imperialism.

The pattern is timeless: this isn’t mere privatization, but a reclamation of power by entities answerable to profit, not the public. Today’s tech giants and private militaries are the modern echo of those old privatized empires—magnified. It’s an era where data reigns, borders blur, and the line between governance and corporate interest quietly dissolves.