“Safe” and “suitably qualified”: Professionalising private security through mandatory training: a New Zealand case study

ABSTRACT When enacted in 2011 the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act (2010) finally replaced an obsolete regulatory framework first introduced in New Zealand three decades earlier. Its advocates claimed the Act would raise standards, reduce risk and enhance the industry’s tarnished reputation by ensuring security personnel would henceforth be suitably qualified. Among various changes made in pursuit of these objectives arguably the most important was the introduction of mandatory training. Five years have now passed since mandatory training commenced and with the first licence renewal process now complete, consideration of whether the Act, and mandatory training, has achieved its key aims is particularly timely. This article presents analyses of primary licencing, training and qualification data to provide a tentative empirical answer to this fundamental question.