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The new keys to the city: uploading corporate security and threat discourse into Canadian municipal governments

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Abstract

We examine the establishment of municipal corporate security (MCS) departments in 16 of Canada’s most populated cities. Exploring its upload into municipal governments by drawing on analysis of freedom of information requests, municipal government documents, and interviews, we demonstrate how MCS has become part of urban policing and security networks, as well as how knowledge and technology from the private security and insurance industries is transferred into municipal government through MCS. Engaging with sociologies of networked security governance, security consumption, and risk management, we argue that MCS contributes to the securitization of cities through asset protection, risk and liability management, employee surveillance, and order maintenance. We discuss how the work of MCS is animated by a discourse of urban threat, showing how MCS practices in Canadian cities blur the line between policing and securitization. In conclusion, we consider the implications of our analysis of MCS for sociological understandings of policing, security, and public accountability.

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Notes

  1. There are several challenges that researchers face when using FOI requests to produce data. Disclosures can be obstructed using exemptions. In our case, some municipalities used exemptions contained in the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to prevent documents from being released. Disclosures can be scant due to redaction and should be triangulated with other data sources, such as interviews [58].

  2. Meeting minutes were not available for all cities. For some, only several years were available. For other cities, we examined minutes from the mid-1990s to the present.

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Acknowledgements

The authors have contributed equally to the theoretical and empirical development of this article. We acknowledge support from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant. We also thank Setha Low, Chris Hurl, and Seantel Anaïs for comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Kevin Walby

  2. University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    Randy K. Lippert

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Correspondence to Kevin Walby.

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Walby, K., Lippert, R.K. The new keys to the city: uploading corporate security and threat discourse into Canadian municipal governments. Crime Law Soc Change 58, 437–455 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-012-9395-9

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