In the past, when national security didn’t existed in New York or the rest of the United States, the private security sector was responsible for all aspects of crime prevention from investigations and seeking fugitives to protecting the president and serving as night watchmen. The first city police to be established in the country was the NYPD, which resulted in the public sector taking over the above duties. Despite this, the New York private security sector has never become obsolete but has played a constantly changing role that continues to evolve to this day.
Even before the September 11th attacks, the law enforcement acknowledged that police alone were not sufficient to cover all security functions, primarily because they must carry out ever increasing duties while resources stay the same. The police force is now expected to undertake tasks including teaching drug prevention, staffing schools, investigating computer crime, training special response units, and learning to become counter-terrorism specialists. This leaves little time to eliminate crime and ensure the safety of citizens, and personnel are often unable to cope with the influx of calls to their agencies.