Hired Guns, Unwanted Guards

America’s private security industry has morphed into a global mercenary force—staffed by ex-military from around the world, barely paid, and barely wanted by the corporations they protect.

In cities and suburbs across the United States, the uniformed guard standing at the mall, the hospital, or the warehouse gate may not be who—or what—you think. Increasingly, private security firms in the U.S. are evolving into decentralized, for-profit paramilitary operations, more closely aligned with global private armies than traditional domestic policing. The transformation is fueled by international recruitment, corporate disinterest, and structural pressures that prioritize cost-cutting over community safety.

A 2021 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found over 1.1 million private security guards employed in the U.S.—compared to fewer than 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers nationwide (BLS, 2021). But unlike the police, the private security industry is largely unregulated, opaque, and increasingly reliant on military veterans and former law enforcement from countries like Colombia, Israel, the Philippines, and South Africa (Avant, 2005; Abrahamsen & Williams, 2011).

These are not retirees looking for a quiet job. Many are combat-tested professionals trained in conflict zones. U.S.-based security giants like Allied Universal, G4S, and Constellis have leveraged global recruitment networks to keep wages low while providing corporations with a plausible shield of deterrence. The result? A privatized patchwork army standing guard over American commercial infrastructure—paid just enough to show up, but not enough to stick around.

“It’s a churn-and-burn model,” says Dr. Kathleen Hale, a public administration expert at Auburn University. “Companies don’t want to spend on training or retention because security isn’t a profit center—it’s an insurance requirement.” In other words, most security contracts exist only because underwriters demand them. The companies that rely on private security would dump the expense tomorrow if they could.

This financial incentive distorts the entire profession. Security officers are underpaid, undertrained, and routinely placed in high-risk environments—despite having no statutory authority. And because corporations view them as expendable liabilities rather than assets, high turnover is not just tolerated, it’s baked into the business model.

The paradox is grim: private security is necessary to shield corporate operations, yet the corporations themselves would rather not deal with the cost. This contradiction has led to an unstable national security scaffolding, built on the backs of foreign-trained workers operating in an American legal grey zone.

“The guard at your bank might’ve done three tours in Kandahar,” notes Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “But now he’s watching parking lots for minimum wage because the same logic that turned wars into private contracts is running American business.”

Meanwhile, the American public is left with a security apparatus that looks like a military—without any of the transparency, oversight, or accountability.

For now, private security quietly props up the American economy. But when your infrastructure is guarded by a mercenary workforce and funded by companies that wish it didn’t exist, how long before that safety net snaps?

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References
Abrahamsen, R., & Williams, M. C. (2011). Security Beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics. Cambridge University Press.
Avant, D. D. (2005). The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security. Cambridge University Press.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Occupational Employment and Wages, Security Guards. https://www.bls.gov