Private security sector booms in Turkey

Private security continues to grow at a rapid pace in Turkey, as the number of Turkish private security guards has surpassed the number of soldiers in 134 countries.

The number of private security guards has reached 169,000, according to recent data. This figure compares with military populations of 163,000 in Poland, 148,000 in the Ukraine, 127,000 in Algeria and 120,000 in Switzerland. Nearly 47,000 companies have received permission to employ security guards.

The country has more than 415,000 people licensed to work as security guards.

Since 2004, when the regulation on private security came into effect, 1,270 companies have received licenses to operate as private security providers, according to Bülent Perut, chief of the All Private Security Associations Federation, or TÖGF.

“More than 700 institutions are training private security officers,” Perut said. “Until today, 46,688 institutions have received permission to employ security guards. Since 2004, more than a million people entered exams to become guards. Nearly 687,000 of them got their certificates. Out of this latter figure, 415,487 individuals received private security IDs.”

Turkey is ahead of many European countries and even the U.S. in private security, according to Perut. “We are shouldering an important load from the shoulders of the state,” he said. “We employ people that seek jobs, waiting in desolate corners of teahouses and turn them into people who fight crime. Maybe the man was going to be a thief, involved in crime, but suddenly he becomes one who fights against crime.”

According to the proposed changes, the responsibility for dams and bridges might also be transferred to private security. Perut said he has requested that private security guards’ authority should be enlarged especially during sports matches.

“Foreign capital is [busy] buying out private security firms,” Perut told the Anatolia news agency. “Two or three of the top five or six private security firms have been acquired by foreign companies.”

Source: http://bit.ly/hKnwaI