Most security and protection systems emphasize certain hazards more than
others. In a retail store, for example, the principal security concerns are
shoplifting and employee dishonesty (e.g., pilferage, embezzlement,
and fraud). A typical set of categories to be protected includes the personal safety
of people in the organization, such as employees, customers, or residents;
tangible property, such as the plant, equipment, finished products, cash, and
securities; and intangible property, such as highly classified
national-security information or “proprietary” information (e.g., trade
secrets) of private organizations. An important distinction between a security
and protection system and public services such as police
and fire departments is that the former employs means that
emphasize passive and preventive measures.
Security systems are found in a wide variety of organizations, ranging from
government agencies and industrial plants to apartment buildings and schools.
Sufficiently large organizations may have their own proprietary security
systems or may purchase security services by contract from specialized security
organizations.
The origins of security systems are obscure, but techniques for protecting
the household, such as the use of locks and barred windows, are very ancient.
As civilizations developed, the distinction between passive and active security
was recognized, and responsibility for active security measures was vested in
police and fire-fighting agencies.
By the mid-19th century, private organizations such as those of Philip Sorensen in Sweden and Allan
Pinkerton in the United States had also begun to build efficient large-scale
security services. Pinkerton’s organization offered intelligence,
counterintelligence, internal security, investigative, and law enforcement
services to private business and government. Until the advent of collective
bargaining in the United States, strikebreaking was also a prime concern. The
Sorensen organization, in contrast, moved toward a loss-control service for industry.
It provided personnel trained to prevent and deal with losses from crime, fire,
accident, and flood and established the pattern for security services in the
United Kingdom and elsewhere in western Europe.
World Wars I and II brought an increased awareness of security systems as a
means of protection against military espionage, sabotage, and subversion; such
programs in effect became part of a country’s national-security
system. After World War II much of this apparatus was retained as a result of
international tensions and defense-production programs and became part of an
increasingly professionalized complex of security functions.
The development and diffusion of security systems and hardware in various
parts of the world has been an uneven process. In relatively underdeveloped
countries, or the underdeveloped parts of recently industrializing countries,
security technology generally exists in rudimentary form, such as barred
windows, locks, and elementary personnel security measures. In many such
regions, however, facilities of large international corporations and sensitive
government installations employ sophisticated equipment and techniques.
Common synonyms are “screening” and “vetting.” The most
common technique is the background investigation, which involves obtaining all
relevant available data about a person’s past education, employment, and
personal behaviour and making judgments concerning the individual’s likely
future loyalty and honesty. Thus, the dossier and computerized national data
banks exemplify a response by a society in which great geographic mobility
necessitates record keeping as a basis for judgments. Another technique is the
polygraph, or lie-detector, examination. Research has also been directed to the
possible capabilities and limitations of pencil-and-paper psychological tests
and stress interviews. In addition to selection techniques there are other
measures designed to keep personnel trustworthy after they have been brought
into the system—for example, employee indoctrination programs and vulnerability
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