In the midst of contemporary debates over the prison–industrial complex and whose lives matter – black, blue, or all – the relationship between the police and the citizenry can seem especially fraught. But as Wilbur R. Miller reminds us in A History of Private Policing in the United States, debates over policing, public and private, legal and extralegal, helpful and harmful, date back to the nation's founding in 1776. Organized thematically, this overview of private policing from its historical forms – vigilantism, Pinkertons, and slave patrols – to its modern-day renditions – detectives, rent-a-cop, and security guards – covers a wide range of topics in quick succession. The result is a highly readable, sometimes simplistic, synthesis of recent political developments, sociological findings, and historical research.

Placing policing within the context of state power and state development, Miller describes private agencies as auxiliaries of the state. Adopting a comparative framework, Miller argues that the American state, while not necessarily a “weak state,” nonetheless developed differently than the centralized bureaucracies of Europe (3). In the United States, a diffusion of power among the local, state, and national levels, Miller argues, contributed to the proliferation of private police organizations. American individualism, which Miller considers “the dominant American political ideology,” created a preference for private action, which stunted the development of well-controlled public police forces (2). Notions of representative democracy, which developed prior to the rise of the American administrative state, further multiplied the opportunities for privatization and public–private partnerships. In turn, individuals, communities, and corporations (such as railroads and manufacturers) turned to private policing during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public police forces were slow to develop in America, and the few that did develop during the nineteenth century remained tied to party politics and, by extension, political corruption and bribery. Recognizing a need to control their communities, most upper- and middle-class individuals, Miller contends, tacitly or explicitly tolerated private or even corrupt policing “as long as it was directed against minority groups” or used to control vice (2). Within this unique environment, vigilantism, private detectives, and corporate policing flourished. Although the opening chapter is dedicated to matters of state power and its relation to policing, the subsequent chapters engage less with this overall theme.

According to Miller, private policing falls into one of two categories: first, individuals or groups defending themselves against real and perceived community threats, a form of private policing which encompasses vigilantism, self-defense, and patrol groups; and second, private firms or detectives hired by corporate management, acting in corporate interests. While private policing is the main focus of his synthesis, Miller also briefly considers public, legally sanctioned policing, focussing especially on political corruption and its role in controlling vice.

Miller divides his text into thematic chapters, further divided by numerous subheadings addressing specific subthemes. Some sections, such as the those addressing animal cruelty, convict leasing, and mall security, are relatively brief and provide little more than encyclopedic background information. Other sections are richer. His analysis of late nineteenth-century private detectives, union busting, and the policing of labor are, by far, the strongest sections of the work. Drawing directly from John Walton's The Legendary Detective: The Private Eye in Fact and Fiction (2015), Jennifer Fronc's New York Undercover: Private Surveillance in the Progressive Era (2009), and Robert M. Smith's From Blackjacks to Briefcases: A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States (2003), Miller demonstrates how private detectives and police forces, which were hired by corporations or manufacturers, strong-armed labor, prevented strikes, and crushed union activities. Though trained as a historian, Miller devotes equal attention to the present. Taking his analysis into the recent Obama and Trump administrations, he relies heavily on Web-based sources, such as New York Times articles and editorials. While not a political polemic, Miller does address controversial issues such as the Second Amendment, the “stand-your-ground” law, and mass incarceration.

Clearly written and organized with subheadings, this work serves as an ideal introduction to policing for undergraduates or a general readership. It does not – nor does it claim to – provide a deep scholarly analysis of any of these subjects. It is, according to Miller, “a starting point for those wishing to pursue more detailed studies of specific aspects of private policing,” and it fulfils that purpose (xi). Indeed, the strength of A History of Private Policing in the United States is its ability to place our present policing system and our modern news reports within a historical context.