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.