Lack of Synergy between PSCs and Government Agencies
PSCs and other government agencies like the Police and the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are expected to have strong
bond and inter-networking relationship, but this is not so. In South
Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia
intelligence information, sharing and gathering of evidence forms the
basis for PSCs and Police collaboration in crime control. In addition,
PSCs collaborate with the police in mapping out hotspots for crime in
order to ensure effective crime control and prevention (Ruddell, Thomas
& Pattern, 2010; Sotlar & Mesko, 2011). In Nigeria, PSCs and the
police do not have a synergy of working cordially in crime control. This
is because the Police see PSCs as uneducated, unskilled, and
unprofessional. Thus, Abrahamsen and Williams (2009) noted that the
collaboration between private security guards and the police was
unstructured, and often inefficient and ineffective. On the other hand,
the NSCDC are legally bound to supervise the activities of PSCs but
instead both struggle for oil company contracts. Gucia and Manning
(2007), found in their study of Republic of Moldavo that the regulating
agency of PSCs was in constant competition with PSCs over guard job
contracts. This means that NSCDC does not adequately regulate or monitor
PSC operations. Kasali (2011) in his study confirmed this when he found
that there was inadequate regulation of private security companies and
expressed his fear that it might pose severe risk to subscribers because
of the illegal activities of security guards working in unlicensed
private security companies especially if the private security guards
commit any crime. These can pose a serious operational challenge for
PSCs and therefore affect their performance in crime control.