In the shadows of protection: Brazilian police in private security

The police play a pivotal role in Brazil's private security industry, even though they are prevented by law from participating in the business. In this article, we argue that the configuration of the private security market reinforces officers' material and symbolic gains. Drawing on long-term ethnographic work on private security and policing in elite residential complexes in Sao Paulo state, we demonstrate how police enhance their individual standing and personal wealth while maintaining regular security guards in subordinate positions. We describe officers' role in risk management, firm ownership, and gig work (known as bicos). By showing how these forms of labor are negotiated in private security settings, we conclude that strategic blurring between public and private realms produces systemic ambiguities and advances a governance model that privileges police power.