Summary
The rationalization of public policing has left a large part of the population reliant upon their own measurements of risk management which, in turn, has contributed to the augmentation of collective and individual use of policing alternatives, specifically, private security (Murphy, 2001). Increasingly, people are relying on their own security initiatives to protect themselves and their employees. Theories on the rise of private security related to wider concepts of postmodern 'risk society" have contributed to the proliferation of policing alternatives and reliance on self-policing. Although there has been much theoretical research conducted on the growth of private security, very little empirically based information has been collected on the security needs, concerns and choices of small business owners within current Canadian social science literature. Attempting to address this 'gap', this paper will examine the "tipping point" or in other words, the circumstances under which business owners begin to rely on their own measures of security and how this is related to wider theories of postmodern risk society and social change.