The big business of personal protection: How private security became a $50 billion industry
The trendy Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego, California, was the backdrop for violent acts and hate crimes. Business owners had enough. The Hillcrest Business Association's members in 2024 began paying a third-party service around $400,000 annually for eight hours of unarmed security guard patrol each day. The association plans to add about $150,000 to the budget next year for a second shift. "It's about setting a tone in the neighborhood," said Benjamin Nicholls, the association's executive director. Violent crime in the U.S. has plummeted over recent decades, government data shows. But a series of high-profile incidents involving businesses, politicians and community groups has helped catalyze an explosion of spending on protection services in places such as Hillcrest, providing a boon for providers like Allied Universal. Revenue in the private security sector climbed 17% over the past decade to above $50 billion in 2025, according to Robert H. Perry & Associates. Outsourced services in the U.S. accounted for just over $35 billion, including electronic security systems and manned guarding, the industry broker said. Some think it's a sign of the times: As political and cultural tensions hit a boiling point in the U.S., even pockets of American life once considered mundane feel at risk of becoming scenes of violence. "Who would have thought 10 years ago that you would need to hire private security at a school board meeting or at a town meeting," said Steve Amitay, executive director of the National Association of Security Companies, an industry group. "We live in a very divisive and inflammatory society right now." At the heart of the personal protection boom is Allied Universal, a privately held company with operations in more than 100 countries and annual revenue of about $23 billion. Guards donning Allied Universal's uniforms oversee lines, operate metal detectors and inspect bags at sporting events, music festivals and office buildings. Allied lists more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies among its clients and has supported globally important events such as this summer's World Cup. CEO Steve Jones has publicly shared his ambitions to take the company public. Allied said in a statement to CNBC that "we continue to assess how the company is capitalized" and that its focus is currently on expanding the business and serving customers. Allied bills itself as the seventh-largest private employer in the world, saying it has roughly 800,000 employees. For comparison, that makes its workforce nearly double the size of Target's and more than three times as large as Disney's. In a given week, Allied said it receives approximately 65,000 applications, interviews around 40,000 candidates and hires about 3,500 people for its North America operations.