Articles

Dr. James F. Pastor has published articles on a variety of public safety and security topics. An introduction of each article is provided below. Please click on any link to read the entire article:

Security Laws & Legal Issues	Private Policing & Security	Terrorism
Foundations of Security Law The concept of security law requires an understanding of many diverse legal disciplines. These disciplines range from negligent and intentional torts to contract and insurance provisions, agency and vicarious liability theories, and constitutional and criminal laws.  Despite their obvious diversity, these disciplines are linked in this context by the impact of crime and misconduct. Hence, this legal analysis should be supplemented with “security sense” and experience...	Private Policing & Order Maintenance This paper is designed to address a complex yet important topic: private policing. There are many aspects of this topic. We will focus on the key function of private policing: order maintenance. This function is not new. Indeed, it is as old as policing itself—even older. What makes this function distinctive can be answered in a few descriptive words: who, what, where, why, and how. Each of these factors is explained in detail below...	Terrorism: Indicators & Implications One of the first aspects of terrorism which needs to be understood is that it is different from "normal" crime in some important ways. First, the motivation of a typical criminal is usually financial gain or benefit. The motivation of terrorism is larger than financial gain, with political, ideological and religious motivations at the core of the true terrorist. While it is true that terrorists have financial desires, these are secondary to the larger political, ideological or religious motivations...
Premises Liability & Negligent Security   Premises Security Liability is a broad way to describe various legal theories related to the intersection of criminal conduct and tort liability. The relevant legal theories include Negligent Security, Premises Liability, Negligent Hiring, Negligent Supervision, Negligent Entrustment, Negligent Retention, and the like. The common theme for these causes of action is that a criminal act occurred on or around real property or within a business, and the property or business owner is sued by the victim of the crime...	Private Policing Arrangements This paper is designed to address a complex yet often overlooked topic. I contend that private security will increasingly provide services in ways traditionally carried out by police. Although private police have been relatively unstudied within academic research, and largely overlooked by policy makers, this paper seeks to take a step to remedy this deficiency by serving as both a primer and a resource to those professionals in the law enforcement and security fields interested in this emergent and important topic...	Public Safety Policing In these times of seemingly relentless news reports of terrorist acts coupled with the steady stream of terror alerts, those who look underneath the sensationalism caused by terrorism must ask the inevitable question: What is the best way to deal with this violence and its implications? There are many ways and levels to assess this question. Your solution is often dependent on how you see the problem. Some will focus on foreign policy. Others will emphasize intelligence, crisis management, religion, or even economic aide, to name a few...
Security Law: Elements & Tests In order to assess the liability exposure related to crime and misconduct, one must consider the tort of negligence. Negligence can be defined as the failure or omission to do something that a reasonable and prudent person would do, or doing something a reasonable and prudent person would not do...	Security Methods & Defenses When considering how to limit crimes by third parties, or at least limit the liability exposure from such, there are three basic approaches: pre-incident assessments, post-incident investigations, and legal defenses and theories. Each approach is distinct. Each approach, however, is interrelated to the others. For example, if there was no pre-incident assessment, then this will affect the post-incident investigation, which in turn relates to the legal defenses and theories tied to the case. Each of these approaches will be presented independently, but keep in mind that they are interrelated...	Terrorism and Public Safety Policing We are at the cusp of a silent, yet fundamental shift that will change the notion of public safety. This new policing model will emphasize tactical methods, technology, and alternative service providers, such as security personnel. It will replace the “community policing” model, which is the dominant policing strategy...
State by State Liability Tests This table is a valuable tool to assess security liability. Indeed, the value of this table is that it attempts to define a difficult, often fluid, area of the law. To the best of my knowledge, no other author has developed a table of this type. Hopefully, the attempt to place clear distinctions between the varying state laws into an easily reviewable table is a useful tool for those who need to get a sense of the law in a particular state, or of the broader concept of security law...	Public Safety Providers: Contemporary Data & Circumstances The relative size and scope of policing and security are well known in industry circles. Much of this data is derived from the groundbreaking Hallcrest studies. These studies reveal that in 1981, the security industry spent approximately $21.7 billion, compared to the $13.8 billion spent on public policing. In 1991, these expenditures rose to $52 billion for private security, compared to only $30 billion for public policing.  By the year 2000, private security spent approximately $104 billion, while public policing spent only $44 billion. This ratio of expenditures reveals that about 70 percent of all money invested in crime prevention and law enforcement is spent on private security. Furthermore, statistics reveal that the annual growth rate for private security is about double the growth rate of public policing...
Crime and Premises Liability When considering how to limit crimes by third parties, or at least limit the liability exposure from such, there are three basic approaches: pre-incident assessments, post-incident investigations, and legal defenses. Each approach is distinct. Each approach, however, is interrelated to the others. For example, if there was no pre-incident assessment, then this will affect the post-incident investigation, which in turn relates to the legal defenses and theories tied to the case. Each of these approaches will be presented independently, but keep in mind that they are interrelated. This will become more obvious when combined or assessed with legal defenses and theories...	Liability & Operational Implications of Off-Duty Police Employment Those familiar with the police culture know that just as the sun will rise in the east, so will police officers work in part-time positions. It is widely accepted that police officers engage in various forms of part-time work, typically in some “security” function. This practice has existed for decades. This article will address the contemporary legal and societal implications of this age-old practice. In doing so, we will review typical police practices related to off-duty police employment, set out the related legal principles, survey important cases, and then describe how contemporary circumstances may affect these practices...
Legal Issues in Private Policing Affording police powers into private police may become increasingly necessary given governmental efforts to protect public safety in the face of depleting manpower and financial resources. The advent of these public–private arrangements requires addressing key legal questions. These include the following: What are the legal and constitutional limitations of private police? What licensing, training, and accountability guidelines are appropriate? These and other key questions will be developed below...	New 'Policing' Model There has long been an adage in policing where the optimal level of security is to have a “police officer on every block.” This “goal” is considered both desirable, and yet unattainable. People usually do not register the presence of police in their mind. During heightened threats, however, we look for police officers and other authority figures to qualm our fears, and to provide us with a sense of security...
Private Police Licensing Addressing licensing standards within the security industry has been percolating for years. As those in the security industry are quite aware, the quest to “professionalize” security officers is often tied to licensing regulations. The essence of this connection is as follows: in order to increase the service level and effectiveness of security officers, it is widely understood that training, pay and selection standards need to be heightened. While these three factors are often interrelated, this paper will focus on licensing standards—as these are the most cleanly attributable to governmental regulations...	Private Police=Para Police? In the past several years many in the security industry have advocated increasing professional standards. The hallmark criteria of professionalism usually relate to training, wages, recruitment standards, and accountability. These issues take on increased importance in light of the nature and scope of the security industry in contemporary America. Due to the threat of terrorism coupled with financial and operational constraints facing municipal policing agencies, the use of private police will increase in coming years. Understanding the legal and operational framework of security is critical as the scope of private policing grows...
Security and Legal Protection This article addresses the security and legal issues relative to the Seattle video depicting the beating of a girl while security personnel stood around. In February 2010, a video in a Seattle train station showed three security personnel standing around while the girl is beaten and kicked. A fire storm of criticism rained on the security officers, the security firm and its governmental client. Of course, people are upset about the failure of these security officers to intervene. This occurred for two basic reasons...	Private Policing- Research Questions and Findings I have been interested in this subject since the early 1990’s. Even as a police officer during the 1980’s, I often considered the realities of the “job” as it related to private policing. Over time, I concluded that police were overwhelmed with numerous service oriented calls—not to mention the violence stemming from gangs and drugs. My research of private policing included ride-alongs with private police officers as they patrolled the streets of a Chicago neighborhood...
Three C's in Expert Witnesses While the jury normally makes factual determinations in court cases, an expert witness is allowed the opportunity to provide opinion testimony to help the jury reach a proper decision. In choosing an expert to assess your police or security methodology, whether prior to or after an incident occurs, it is critically important that you select an individual based on three factors: Character, Credentials, and Credibility...