This research offers a synopsis of the key concepts in law enforcement and private security cooperation. ILJ has studied the nature of cooperation between law enforcement agencies and private security operations, performing a literature review covering hundreds of academic papers, periodical articles, books, and written agreements governing cooperative programs. In law enforcement-private security cooperation, terms are important. Both law enforcement and private security are comprehensive terms. In this context, law enforcement consists of a wide range of local, state, and federal agencies, including police and sheriffs departments and various investigative and enforcement bureaus.
Private security shares some of the missions of law enforcement but is substantially different in many ways. Both proprietary and contract security organizations conduct "a significant amount of the investigations involving credit card theft and fraud, check cases, shoplifting, embezzlement, employee theft, computer hacking, and other criminal enterprises." In law enforcement, employment is estimated at 738,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers, with expenditures running to about $44 or $45 billion annually. For private security, industry is expected to employ 1.9 million persons, and spend about $100 billion for private security products and services by the year 2000.