Privately Sponsored Public Security

When reading Professor Klein's post, "Public Goods and Risk Management", I was reminded of an anecdote I had heard on a radio show about privately sponsored militarys hired after Hurricane Katrina. The story alarmed me in its descriptions of obvious conflicts of interest. The caller on the radio show spoke about a special police force he had encountered in the wake of Katrina which didn't appear to be U.S. military. It wasn't in fact, it was a private company hired by the U.S. government to protect special interests in the area. The caller described how he went up to the men asking for assistance and receieved a response indicating lack of care or concern. The caller described their snide comments about the situation and how they were saying they were being paid so much for doing nothing.

In researching more about companies offering these services, I found information on a few. I found companies offering "risk advisory services" like Kroll, Inc., CRG, and Global Options, Inc. Global Option's company profile described itself as "a multi-disciplinary, international, risk management and business intelligence company."..."the staff of professionals includes former intelligence and law enforcement officers, veterans of America's elite military units, and legal and crisis communication specialists."

Kroll has a security service and describes itself here:
"Global threats are forcing companies to take a harder look at their security programs.
Kroll’s experts in security, protection, engineering, business continuity and emergency management help clients prevent, prepare for and respond to the many threats they face at home and abroad.
From assessment to implementation, clients benefit from Kroll's seamless integration of services, resulting in a more efficient, cost-effective security program. Our experts develop proactive, tiered approaches that can respond quickly to changing threat conditions and help ensure operational continuity in the wake of a crisis."

Here is a description of some of the activities of private militarys and their involvement with the U.S. Department of Defense:
The laws surrounding hired soldiers and civilian contractors is not clear and not well defined under international agreements. This is a reason why increasingly the focus is regulation at the national level; e.g. as the licensing mechanisms used by the United States and South Africa demonstrate. Yet many of the hired soldiers are not American; they could be from the country of conflict, or flown in from Chile, El Salvador, or South Africa. Exactly what jurisdiction, aside from their employer, they are under is, according to some commentators, uncertain. [1]
This is true for American contractors as well. Civilian contractors working for Dyncorp in the Balkan wars were implicated by a fellow employee for indulging in a child prostitution and sale ring in the war torn country. [2] Those who turned in the employees were fired, and later the offending employees were fired , however not charged with anything. [3]
Some of the interrogators in the Abu Ghraib crimes were civilian contractors provided by Titan and CACI. They have yet to be charged for any crimes, however they are being sued as are the two companies. [4][5][6] All three companies have continued to receive large wartime contracts from the US government.
In 2006, the US Congress published an official report on US enterprises that had signed contracts with the State Department or the Defense Department so as to carry out anti-narcotics activities as a part of Plan Colombia. Most the private contract enterprises are under the responsibility of the Defense Department, but the largest contract (DynCorp) is in the hands of the State Department.

I believe it is dangerous for the public to have privately funded public services as the services are more likely to be bent to serve the interests of the ones writing the checks.

“The mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and if anyone supports his state by the arms of mercenaries, he will never stand firm or sure, as they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, faithless, bold amongst friends, cowardly amongst enemies, they have no fear of God, and keep no faith with men,” wrote Machiavelli in The Prince.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Options%2C_Inc.

http://www.kroll.com/services/security/

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=PMC