Civil Rights Protesters Confront Modern-Day Pinkertons
Contract Security Guards Working for the Department of Homeland Security Are Part of the Law Enforcement Response to Recent Protests
Thousands of contract security guards, essentially rent-a-cops, employed by the Department of Homeland Security to secure some 125 federal buildings in the Washington, D.C., area are now engaging civil rights protesters in the city as part of a federal law enforcement response allegedly under the command of Attorney General William Barr.
These contract security personnel have long been part of the Federal Protective Service (FPS), which is under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). These contract guards are deployed at the more than 9,000 federal facilities nationwide.
There are some 13,000 security guards nationwide employed by FPS via contracts with private security firms, with about a third of them — 5,000 to 6,000 — based in the Washington, D.C. area, according to the most recently available figures. Via contracts with FPS, more than 50 private security firms provide guards — referred to as protective security officers — to the agency in the Washington, D.C., area alone.
