Investigating private security service providers’ compliance with relevant legislations in selected drinking establishments in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Abstract

One of the major driving forces in the evolution of policing has been the growth and expansion of the security sector. In the global context, the private security sector employs more security personnel than are employed by most governments. South Africa and the United States in particular depend heavily on private security companies for the safety of their citizenry, and the regulation of the private security sector is therefore crucial to ensure compliance with the law. However, although they have authority over substantial portions of metropolitan territory, the private security field receives less attention than the formal police force in terms of legal requirements and regulations. Moreover, there is a new field of employment within the private security industry for people who are commonly referred to as ‘bouncers’ who work predominantly in bars and clubs. Unfortunately, the unauthorized or unregulated employment of bouncers who work in the security industry is a problem that occurs everywhere. In the South African context, very limited research has been conducted on the non-compliance of bouncers with legal requirements, and this study endeavoured to fill this gap. The study used a mixed methods approach to achieve its objectives; hence both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed. It was decided to utilize a triangulated mixed methods design as it would be inappropriate to prioritize or give more weight to one approach over the other. The result was a fully mixed approach giving contemporaneous and equal status to the two approaches. Four key components, namely the study objectives, type of data and operation, type of analysis, and type of inference, were therefore given equal attention in terms of qualitative and qualitative data analysis. A desired sample was targeted and recruited using the non-probability sampling strategy. Two Private Security Industry Regulation Authority (PSiRA) employees who worked in law enforcement and compliance departments were included in the sample, while 46 bouncers, 40 customers from various selected drinking establishments, and 8 management members from the selected drinking businesses were also included. The findings revealed that the majority of establishments that employed these bouncers did not comply with the rules and regulations of PSiRA as they were neither in possession of a PSiRA accredited certificate nor registered with this oversight body. This means that the drinking establishments hired and managed bouncers based on their internal criteria regardless of the legal requirement to be registered as a private security service provider. The study further discovered that the managers of these establishments were not aware of the requirement to be registered with PSiRA as the regulator of private security service providers. However, the patrons of the establishments under study generally felt safe in these drinking establishments and it was also found that violence and aggression were not common in these spaces. Three theories were used to analyse the data, find correlations, and understand how bouncers, customers, and bar and club managers behaved and why they behaved the way they did. The findings may therefore by used to forecast future tendencies and trends in this industry and to offer recommendations for improvement. The victim precipitation theory, which contends that victims may unwittingly or intentionally contribute to their victimization, the social disorganization theory, which contends that the presence of appropriate regulation and enforcement can have an impact on behaviour but that their absence will cause the collapse and disarray of society (as is evidenced by the current state of anomie), and the frustration aggression theory, which contends that failure to achieve a goal is frustrating and, if it continues, will escalate into aggressiveness, were the theories that were selected.