The New Policing Family
Plural Policing of Public Spaces in Trinidad and Tobago
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21619461 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wendell C Wallace (0000-0002-5164-5103, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, corresponding author), Russel S Mason (The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 289-309 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1043-9862 • E-ISSN: 1552-5406 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10439862251396442 |
| OpenAlex | W7117448423 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
Within the last two decades, policing has changed radically as the production of public security, once the sole domain of the state police, is now being provided by a host of non-state police actors or private security companies, a development known as plural policing. While there is a growing corpus of scholarship examining plural policing, the majority of this work is dominated by Anglo-American viewpoints. As such, there is an existing gap in plural policing scholarship in Southern contexts. To address this lacuna, the current study utilized a qualitative approach aimed at understanding plural policing in Trinidad and Tobago. Senior personnel ( N = 15) from private security companies were interviewed and their narratives analyzed and used to answer five research questions. The results indicate a host of benefits, challenges, functions, roles, and contributions to National Security as well as safety and security due to plural policing practices in Trinidad and Tobago. Three themes emanated from the study (collaboration, limitedness of state policing, and wide usage of plural policing services) and these are presented and discussed. This study has implications for “policing” in both the narrow and broad contexts
Narrative · Plural · Private security · Qualitative research · Scholarship · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Policing Practices and Perceptions
The Rise of Professionalism
Plural Policing
Phenomenology of Practice
Sample size in qualitative research
Public and Private Partnerships
Living apart together– public-private cooperation in the field of financial crime
Constraints on the growth of private policing
Bringing politics back into the study of policing? A case study on the policing of social disorder in Belgium
Plural policing in Europe
Downtown ambassadors, police relations and ‘clean and safe’ security
Plural Policing and Democratic Governance
Description and explanation of pragmatic development
The Relation between Public and Private Policing
A Guide to Conducting Consensual Qualitative Research
Examining the how of Plural Policing
Theorising and illustrating the collaborative practices of plural policing
Purposeful Sampling in Qualitative Research Synthesis
Quality and trustworthiness in qualitative research in counseling psychology
Hybrid security governance in Africa
Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies
The Privatization of Security
| Highly cited | No |
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