A comparative research on trust and professional perception of law enforcement officers and private security personnel providing internal security service in Turkish public administration

The unit responsible for internal security in our country is the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Interior carries out this service through the executive law enforcement units affiliated with it. The general law enforcement units that provide internal security services in our country are classified as police, gendarmerie and coast guard command institutions. In addition to these, there are also private law enforcement units that are not under the general law enforcement, but established with special laws to ensure public safety to assist the general law enforcement officers. Private security guards, whose number is even more than the total number of police units today, are among the most important of them. The private security organization, which was established in 2004 with the law numbered 5188, is currently employed in a wide range of areas, including universities, airports, hospitals, shopping centers, public institutions and organizations and even private property areas. When we look at the number of active personnel, it is known that there are more than 350,000 private security guards today. It is seen that the private security officers, who have such an employment area, are intertwined with the public and are the closest law enforcement unit to the public. In this study; It is aimed to make a comparative analysis on the trust and professional perceptions of the citizens to private security officers and general law enforcement personnel. In line with the mentioned purpose, quantitative data collection techniques; a face-to-face survey technique has been used and a questionnaire has been applied using the criterion sampling method between March and May 2022 with the developed scale to general law enforcement and private security officers over the age of 18 and 421 people who are not related personally or with kinship, residing in Gaziantep. As a result of the study, although there is no significant difference in the trust of the local people in general law enforcement and private security personnel and their perceptions of their profession, it has been observed that there are significant differences in certain sample types when the age and educational status criteria have been taken into account.