What Now for the World’s Biggest Security Company and Its Critics?
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/pmscs/51867-what-now-for-the-worlds-biggest-security-company-and-its-critics
By Clare Sambrook,
Open Democracy,
August 24, 2012.
The increased privatization of security poses a grave threat to the future of public safety. G4S, the world’s largest Private Security Company, has received heightened media attention in light of its recent failure to provide an adequate security workforce at the Olympics. But G4S had a long record of negligence prior to the Olympics debacle. This year alone, G4S will pocket £1 billion of UK taxpayers’ money from reliable long-term contracts with the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Work & Pensions and local Police Authorities. Private security companies’ profits continue to soar and their misdemeanors to be met with increased impunity, making a democratic review of these services increasingly necessary.
Before the Olympics, big media showed little curiosity about who was taking over UK public services in areas such as the Border Agency, asylum housing, and policing. Yet G4S already had a record of dangerous neglect.
Earlier this summer, G4S, the world’s leading security company, famously failed to provide a workforce fit to guard the London Olympics, prompting the unexpected deployment of thousands of troops and police officers.
#sécurité #compagnie-privée-sécurité #organisations-paramilitaires #privatisation-police #privatisation-armée #privatisation