History Main / LawEnforcementInc

* In the {{Cyberpunk}} world of ''Literature/TheSupernaturalist'', police are widely seen as incompetent and useless compared to "paralegals" -- a cross between special forces and lawyers who show up at a crime scene well before the police, to gather evidence for their clients by any means possible.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''{{Series/Batwoman}}'': The Crows, a private security force run by Jacob Kane to supplement the GCPD.

* The city of Rapture in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' has no official government and originally had no laws; Rapture Security can thus be presumed to have started out as the equivalent of mall rent-a-cops. Even after Andrew Ryan starts ruling over the city with an iron fist, his order to kill a "subversive" citizen is portrayed like a hit job.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'', since the setting is CyberPunk, and the government of the region all the characters live in is a collection of MegaCorp, and the police inside Kugamayama city's walls are private. When the protagonist Akira rents a house, he gets given the local company's spiel which includes corpse disposal services. Outside the city wall, in the slums and wasteland, there is no law enforcement; the closest equivalent would be one's local slum lord gang.

* Some forms of anarchism believe that such private militias could replace the state law enforcement and do a better job than it does. Anarcho-capitalism, in particular, advocates "private defense agencies" -- thus taking the "inc." part of the trope name literally. Its advocates think these agencies would work like the heroic versions of LawEnforcementInc, while its critics often argue that their profit motive would lead them squarely into the territory of the corrupt versions of the trope, if not a [[OneNationUnderCopyright private state]].

* Ravenwood mercenary company in ''Series/{{Jericho}}'' is an example of this. While originally they were a run of the mill {{Private Military Contractor|s}}, after the attacks they gained the status of military police.

** This happens again in ''[[VideoGame/XCOMApocalypse Apocalypse]]'', where X-COM is contracted to defend the MegaCity of Mega-Primus against the extra-dimensional invaders.
** A somewhat related weapons manufacturer and PMC known as [=MARSEC=] is in charge of doing the same for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Mars]], (where they mainly [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression brutally crush mining colony rebellions]]) while its rival company Megapol handles the law enforcement and emergency services in Mega-Primus.

* The [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Hands of Blue]] in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' appear to be from the MegaCorp Blue Sun Corporation (that is shown as working hand-in-glove with the Alliance state) who have the freedom to kill anyone who gets in the way of their mission to recapture River and Simon -- [[HeKnowsTooMuch or learns about it at all.]]

A self-funded, self-supporting private agency which can act as a legal authority and law enforcement power, or as an official military outfit, even with minimal (if any) ties to actual government/military/police organizations. Agents can act as fully deputized and authorized agents of the law and/or government without bothering with official credentials, pesky background checks, and so forth. The strike force can consist of a OneManArmy (usually if they're the good guys) or an entire RedShirtArmy (usually if their the bad guys). The agency might have its own rigorous training regimen or simply recruit former soldiers and policemen.

* In ''Literature/TheExpanse'' the UN contracts out police work in its' Belt colonies to private security firms like Star Helix, Protogen, and [[MeaningfulName Carne Para la Maquina]]. To some extent they're deployed on Earth as well, in the novella ''The Churn'' Star Helix is contracted by the government of Baltimore to clear out the organized crime problem, but they've got ordinary (and less aggressive) cops too.

* The [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Hands of Blue]] in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' appear to be from the MegaCorp Blue Sun Corporation (that is shown as working hand-in-glove with the Alliance state) who have the freedom to kill anyone who gets in the way of their mission to recapture River and Simon-or learns about it at all.

* There are {{PrivateProfitPrison}}s in the United States. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQa_0gM6hg There have been scandals in which these prisons bribe judges to send more inmates to them, increasing their profits, or running shoddy, substandard, understaffed, or otherwise unsafe facilities, also for greater profit.]] Private prison operators have also been shown to be backing very strict immigration enforcement (such as the draconian laws in Arizona) in order to increase detentions of illegal immigrants (actual or suspected) and thus increase the need for immigrant detention centers.

* There are [[PrivateProfitPrison]]s in the United States. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQa_0gM6hg There have been scandals in which these prisons bribe judges to send more inmates to them, increasing their profits, or running shoddy, substandard, understaffed, or otherwise unsafe facilities, also for greater profit.]] Private prison operators have also been shown to be backing very strict immigration enforcement (such as the draconian laws in Arizona) in order to increase detentions of illegal immigrants (actual or suspected) and thus increase the need for immigrant detention centers.

For an actual government agency version, see HeroesRUs. See also PrivateMilitaryContractors, which may overlap. There's also a good chance it could be part of a MegaCorp or a {{NGO}}. It also might employ {{Corporate Sponsored Superhero}}es. Such agencies must simply be the police in a society which has ''[[PrivatelyOwnedSociety everything]]'' privatized (sometimes it's all owned by a [[OneNationUndercopyright single private entity]]), in which case it's just one arm of the larger group.

* In ''Manga/SilentMobius'' the Tokyo Police apparatus was privatized at some point. A major plot point towards the end of the series revolves around this. [[spoiler: Rally buys a controlling interest in order to preserve the Amplified Mystical Police from a hostile takeover.]]

* In ''ComicBook/TheQuestion'', Mayor Myra Fermin was at one point considering disbanding [[WretchedHive Hub City's notoriously corrupt police force]] and hiring biker gangs to enforce the law.

* In the ''Franchise/RoboCop'' movies, [[MegaCorp Omni Consumer Products]] has entered into a contract with the city of Detroit to run the Detroit Police Department (the OCP logo is shown to be the emblem used on the police cars). In addition to the law, they also have to follow corporate procedures, much to the annoyance of many police officers. [[Film/RoboCop1987 In the first movie]], it's revealed that Bob Morton and his team have restructured the department so that the best candidates for the [=RoboCop=] project are in areas where they are most likely to be killed. Also, when Murphy is suiting up for duty after he first arrives at Metro West, he speculates that OCP has to do something about transferring officers around.

* The [=CorpSeCorps=] in ''Literature/OryxAndCrake'', who work for the world's {{Mega Corp}}s.

** The short story "The Hand You're Dealt" is about a case of murder on a habitat that has no government, only private services. The protagonist is a detective with a private police company called The Cop Shop. There are apparently multiple such businesses-"Spitpolish, Inc" is mentioned as a competitor that has uniformed cops, which his employer lacks.
---> I took my pocket forensic scanner and exited The Cop Shop. That was its real name-no taxes in Mendelia, after all. You needed a cop, you hired one.
** "The Right's Tough" features astronauts that come back to Earth after over a hundred years absence to find it has become stateless. Houston no longer features a space center, so they are invited to land on the White House lawn-which has become an upscale restaurant and museum. Among its features are private police (one of the astronauts tries to rape a woman, but she has a device which immediately calls the police she's contracted with, who stop him).

* ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' had a sketch about this in their very first episode: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4 Welcome to the Private Police Force]]. It was a humorous take on privatizations then recently conducted by the Thatcher government, as the episode states not only the police but the UK high roads and ''even the royal family'' have been privatized. ''And'' it implies the police force is now owned by Americans.

* Ravenwood mercenary company in ''Series/{{Jericho}}'' is an example of this. While originally they were a run of the mill Private Military Contractor, after the attacks they gained the status of military police.

* In one episode of ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'', aside from previous problems from OCP seen in the films, OCP hires out a street gang to enforce the law in one of the more problematic neighbourhoods (section five). Problem being that their police work involved stealing, extortion and drug dealing; beating up anybody that opposed them with sledgehammers. To make it worse OCP put kill switches in all the real cops cars to prevent them from entering section five and Robocop had a new directive added that make it impossible for him to enter.

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', Hero Corp is an organization that employs heroes for profit, selling their services to the law enforcement agencies of the area they're in. Many heroes look down on Hero Corp as sell-outs and ethically challenged, but many more look to it as a way to be a hero full-time, without a mild-mannered day job.

* The Liberty Police, Inc. from ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}''. Though they will err on the side of arresting you (more arrests = more prisoners = larger workforce for their private prisons), they aren't portrayed as any more or less effective than the more traditional police forces in the other nations.

* The Rokkaku Police from ''VideoGame/JetSetRadio'' are owned by the Rokkaku Group, they are sent to arrest various teen skater gangs throughout Tokyo to the point where they send SWAT teams, Gunships and Tanks.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Elanus Risk Control Services, an arms manufacturer, provides security and policing on the corporate-run world of Noveria. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', various mercenary groups provide security forces on several worlds in the Terminus Systems.
* Pirandello-Kruger in ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' make up the vast majority of combat-armoured enemies in the game. They serve the function of SWAT teams, and are responsible for Project Icarus, [[spoiler:a training regimen for pursuit cops to chase down and eliminate runners]]. They operate parallel to the city police, the "Blues", but are not intimately connected besides working to stop Faith and the other runners.

* ''TheSimpsons'': [=SpringShield=], founded by Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard and Carl Carlson, which went on to take over police chores for the whole city. Amusingly it ended because they got too ''good''. Homer went and arrested Fat Tony, essentially ending crime in Springfield. As soon as he was released, he announced that he and his associates would kill Homer the next day, which lead to Homer pleading with the townspeople to help him. [[Film/HighNoon Of course, they didn't]] -- even Lenny and Carl abandoned him. Homer [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] it perfectly:

* Finnish Protection Service, who have been criticized for issuing parking tickets. It was ruled that since they were employed by another firm AND had informed people that they would issue tickets for illegal parking, they didn't break law.

* There are privately-run prisons in the United States. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQa_0gM6hg There have been scandals in which these prisons bribe judges to send more inmates to them, increasing their profits, or running shoddy, substandard, understaffed, or otherwise unsafe facilities, also for greater profit.]] Private prison operators have also been shown to be backing very strict immigration enforcement (such as the draconian laws in Arizona) in order to increase detentions of illegal immigrants (actual or suspected) and thus increase the need for immigrant detention centers.

A self-funded, self-supporting private agency which can act as a legal authority and law enforcement power, or as an official military outfit, even with minimal (if any) ties to actual government/military/police organizations. Agents can act as fully deputized and authorized agents of the law and/or government without bothering with official credentials, pesky background checks, and so forth. The strike force can consist of a OneManArmy or an entire RedShirtArmy. The agency might have its own rigorous training regimen or simply recruit former soldiers and policemen.

For an actual government agency version, see HeroesRUs. See also PrivateMilitaryContractors, which may overlap. There's also a good chance it could be part of a MegaCorp or a {{NGO}}. May employ {{Corporate Sponsored Superhero}}es.

** The short story "The Hand You're Dealt" is about a case of murder on a habitat that has no government, only private services.
---> I took my pocket forensic scanner and exited The Cop Shop. That was its real name-no taxes in Mendelia, after all. You needed a cop, you hired one.
*** There are apparently multiple such businesses-"Spitpolish, Inc" is mentioned as a competitor that has uniformed cops.
** "The Right's Tough" features astronauts that come back to Earth after over a hundred years absence to find it has become stateless. Houston no longer features a space center, so they are invited to land on the White House lawn-which has become an upscale restaurant and museum...

* ''Film/{{Outland}}''. The company police on the space-mining colony are shown to be corrupt and apathetic, except for the protagonist played by Creator/SeanConnery.
** O'Neil (Connery's character) is stated to be a Federal Marshal, rather than the regular cops, who are on Con-Am's payroll.

* In ''Film/TalesFromTheHood 2'', Dumass Beach runs a series of private prison, and looking to create a force of robots to allow him to take over all law enforcement activities in the US.

* The RAC (Reclamation Apprehension Coalition) of ''Series/Killjoys'' offers services ranging from property retrieval, bodyguarding, and hostage exchange through prisoner transfer and arrest/capture to assassinations. Self-regulating, with harsh penalties for its agents who overstep their Warrant and/or certification, the RAC is (supposed to be) politically neutral, and only cares that their agents are serving a valid Warrant.

There are [[OmniscientMoralityLicense no pesky "letter of the law" rules and procedures]] which apply to traditional agencies and seem designed to protect the guilty while punishing the innocent. The government might even sub-contract the agency to do all its dirty work.

* Private security has become a booming industry in Detroit due to the city's budget cuts to their police.

* The Tokyo Police apparatus was privatized at some point in the history of ''Manga/SilentMobius''. A major plot point towards the end of the series revolves around this. [[spoiler: Rally buys a controlling interest in order to preserve the Amplified Mystical Police from a hostile takeover.]]

* ''ComicBook/DeathsHead'', the self-described "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" Death's Head, in the MarvelUniverse.
* ''Capes'' is about Capes, Inc., which handles whatever business requires the attention of a superhero. Its employees act like a normal workforce -- when a huge crisis erupts at night and daytime worker Bolt hears about it, he immediately states it's the night shift's problem and heads to bed.
* ''ComicBook/{{Exiles}}'' shows a reality where Heroes for Hire is one of these, consisting of near-every major superhero doing work for them by commission. It turns incredibly dark when their CEO refuses to help a client because they won't pay the full-price for services, resulting in a chain of events that ends with said CEO dead, and the entire population of Japan being exterminated by Moses Magnum and Namora, all because said CEO woke up in a bad mood.
* Even ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Disney]]'' had a go with this trope: in a story of the ''PK Universe'' series some of these guys try and take over Duckburg's law enforcement, even trying to frame Paperinik for attacking them ([[MuggingTheMonster they actually attacked him]] when he called them out for how they treated two wannabe thieves who had already surrendered at the hero's arrival). It's revealed that their boss (who keeps the relationship secret) wants them to take over the law enforcement so they'll bankrupt Duckburg with their bills and force the administration to sell everything to him, a scheme that has already worked thrice but was foiled when [[MuggingTheMonster they tried to make an example of Paperinik and ordered Angus Fangus to not leave the city]], resulting in public unmasking, humiliation, and [[KickTheSonOfABitch Angus using Paperinik's spring-loaded punch on their boss]].

* Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/TeethOfTheTiger'': The Campus basically serves as a private-sector Homeland Security and/or CIA. They are protected from the possibility of serving massive jail time only because of a large stack of undated pardons they have.
* Law enforcement, like most everything else in ''Literature/SnowCrash'', has been completely privatized, and is the domain of such concerns as [=MetaCops=] Unlimited and its smaller, more upscale competitor, [=WorldBeat=] Security.

* ''Literature/TheUngoverned'' by Creator/VernorVinge takes this absolutely seriously, including that from the perspective of a protection company, a national government in war mode is just another crime gang to be dealt with the same way as any other. The sequel, ''Literature/MaroonedInRealtime'', suggests that by the late 21st century, governments have essentially given way to protection companies.

* Jackson's Whole in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' works in exactly the same way. You can hire the cops to arrest someone, but the target may be able to out-bid you and thereby retain their freedom.
* The Police in ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'', also NRA to some extent, though both factions are mostly mercenaries for corporations.
** It shows up the highly corporate nature of these organisations. Notably, when a Nike employee is (forcefully) contracted to do something blatantly illegal, he subcontracts to the Police, who ''themselves'' subcontract the job to the NRA. Nike later contracts the NRA to eliminate the Police manager who handled the original subcontract.

* The [=CorpSeCorps=] in ''Literature/OryxAndCrake'', who work for the world's {{Mega Corp}}s.

* In Creator/StephenDonaldson's ''Literature/TheGapSequence'', the source of Holt Fasner's power is the fact that his United Mining Companies Police has more firepower than anyone else in human space ''combined.'' He manages to parlay it into a legal monopoly on the use of force, thus making himself the very definition of a "government" and the real master of the (legally) sovereign Governing Council.
* In ''Metatropolis'' a company called Edgewater (presumably a reference to Blackwater) has apparently supplanted the police in many of the old decaying cities such as Detroit.
* Although there's mention of a mayor in Geminate City in the ''Literature/StrengthAndJustice'' series, the local law enforcement agency DANDY seems to run on its own rules without restrictions or regulations.
* Vesta in ''Literature/ThePrideOfParahumans'' was intended to be an anarchistic utopia without police, but after the life support systems started breaking down from neglect a number of "Protectors' Guilds" emerged to try and bring order to the chaos. Now they run the asteroid along almost feudal lines.
* The ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'' has multiple polities where the closest thing to a government are Private Law Providers. The Empire actually evolved from a merger of several [=PPLs=] that ended up monopolizing their service area and taking on a number of other public functions. But hey, they govern by the ''unanimous'' consent of their citizen-shareholders.
* In ''Literature/TheExpanse'' the UN contracts out police work in its' Belt colonies to private security firms like Star Helix, Protogen, and [[MeaningfulName Carne Para la Maquina]]. To some extent they're deployed on Earth as well, in the novella ''The Churn'' Star Helix is contracted by the government of Baltimore to clear out the organized crime problem, but they've got ordinary (and less aggressive) cops too.

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', CEDA hired a private security firm to protect civilians, but they became infected too. The survivors having to kill some in the campaign, "The Parish".
* The Agency in ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'' bring peace to the city, at [[spoiler: the cost of turning it into a totalitarian dictatorship.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'', the local police force is owned and backed by a soft drinks megacorp (which, amazingly, is not part of the villain group). In addition to reading you your rights, they'll read you the latest catchy slogan and inform you of what new amazing flavors are out this month.
** ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' and ''VideoGame/DreamfallChapters'' introduce EYE, a police and security force controlled by the Syndicate, a coalition of [[MegaCorp megacorporations]].
* C.E.L.L. in ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} 2''.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' has the Flaming Fist as the de facto police in both the titular city and the surrounding countryside, despite the Flaming Fist technically being a mercenary company. They still take their roles as law enforcement very seriously. So much so that if you ever fight them, their battle cry is "I AM the law!"
* The city of Rapture in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' has no official government and originally had no laws; Rapture Security can thus be presumed to have started out as the equivalent of mall rent-a-cops. Even after Andrew Ryan starts ruling over the city with an iron fist, his order to kill a "subversive" citizen is portrayed like a hit job.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', while there are still a few token police officers in Hengsha, it's repeatedly stated that they were de facto replaced by [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Belltower Associates]].

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' features Sanctum Adroit, a mercenary company that provides armed and [[PoweredArmor armored]] security services to several habitats in the Celeschul system. They're considerably more principled than most examples, capturing a squad of Tagon's Toughs without firing a shot and apprehending their own client when he tries to convince them to kill the Toughs.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSpeedRacer'', Racer X works for a crime-fighting organization called [=InterNet=]. As the show was created in the early 90s, the word internet hadn't yet taken on its current meaning.
* On ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', Misery Inc. has it's own private army. Noticeably, it seems to be [[SkeletonGovernment the only form of law enforcement in Miseryville]].

** [=G4s=] also seems to provide [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtjaLipjwGI&feature=related a number of law-enforcement support services from detainment of suspects to handling prisoner transport.]]