Why some organisations prefer in-house to contract security staff

Many organisations’ insurance requirements and crime prevention strategies involve the use of manned security services, a generic term covering a range of activities including patrolling, guarding, access control, protection of cash in transit services etc. These organisations have a choice of employing a contract security company, recruiting in-house security officers or using a combination of the two. According to the Security Industry Training Organisation (SITO), in-house manned security services could account for up to 40 per cent of the sector.1 Despite this there has been very little research into such services yet perceptions of each differ quite markedly. The most comprehensive work is a chapter in South (1988) and there are short references in Draper (1978) and Johnson (1992).