Private Police Tickets?

By: Michael Bergin

In the modern “information society”, surveillance has become an increasingly prominent industry; highlighting the rise of surveillance, there has been an increased demand for private police. Due to economic and demographic changes, along with a new “culture of fear”, private police now outnumber public law enforcement officers. While private police have much less authority than public law enforcement, their jurisdiction differs on a state-to-state basis. Lately, there’s been a push towards private policing, as a greater number of states are allocating greater power to non-conventional law enforcers. Left unregulated, this increased power in private policing can have potentially damaging outcomes.

In 2008, an Illinois driver noticed flashing lights in his rearview mirror, and was then pulled over and issued a speeding ticket for fifty dollars. However, it was not a public law enforcer that pulled him over. The citing officer was an employee of a private third party policing company, whose services were subsequently purchased by the LaSalle, Illinois homeowner’s association. Claiming false imprisonment, the driver sought justice in an appeals court. The court decision ruled in favor of the plaintiff, stating that the homeowner’s association could not detain and issue citations using private police who have no state certification or training.

        

Approximately four years later, in a ruling exemplifying the push towards increased discretion amongst private police, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the decision handed down in the appellate court. Concluding that there is no logic in allowing a homeowners association to build and maintain roadways, yet not allow them to enforce them, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the appellate court ruling. While the ability to temporarily detain and cite LaSalle drivers is an example of increased discretion amongst private police, it is only a small part of a larger movement.

        

Examining cases from class, along with the aforementioned Illinois Supreme Court case, I have noticed a theme. Private organizations are allowed to enforce their rules, using private police, at essentially their own discretion. Corporate police in private realms act and present themselves as public police, yet aren’t limited by the same constrictions. Target security, for example, can legally detain and question customers without justification and without granting suspects their Miranda rights.  Furthermore, in the gated communities of LaSalle, Illinois, we see another example of unregulated power.

          

In such neighborhoods, one can legally be pulled over and issued a citation from an entity outside the bounds of state regulation. As the citing officer in LaSalle wasn’t under the same restrictions as a public law enforcer, he wouldn’t have been required to provide reasoning for the stop, or afford the driver the possibility to contest the fine; in this scenario, our constitutionally ensured due process of law is completely ignored. While this momentum towards privatization of law enforcement under the current economic, political and cultural climate may be inevitable, we must be extremely meticulous in how we regulate it.