The article mobilizes the expanded concept of policing currently in vogue in the international literature to identify the actors active in the provision of security in Brazil and to analyze empirically the size, growth and some of the characteristics of the legal sector of private security in Metropolitan Region São Paulo. The empirical analysis shows that this sector has experienced a very rapid growth during the decade 90, surpassing the police in terms of personal over the next decade. Most private security operates in workspaces, housing, leisure or shopping where the population spends most of his time. Therefore, the population is more exposed to policing run by private security guards than policing run by police. These facts are discussed in light of a research agenda that has not yet been established in the Brazilian social science.
Social control; Policing; Police; Private security; Metropolitan Region of São Paulo
