What missions can a private security company fulfil according to Luxembourgish law?
At the initiative of the Pirate Party this question was discussed in a joint session of the Chamber commission for justice and domestic security, in the presence of ministers Sam Tanson and Henri Kox.
The Pirate Party consider it unacceptable that agents from private security companies patrol in public spaces, as has happened in Differdange and more recently in the Gare quarter in Luxembourg City. This should be the exclusive area of competence of the police.
After an exchange of viewpoints, the consensus was that the 2002 surveillance law must be revised. The State Council at the time was of the opinion that surveillance in the public sphere should not figure in the law. Minister for Justice Sam Tanson:
"In many places over the years, there has been an increased reliance on security companies. As ever bigger events were organised, it was often considered helpful to have this temporary help to fall back on. That's how this started and it has become more and more common, until these recent cases."
Sam Tanson said she agreed with the Federation of Security Firms that there needs to be a legal framework to clarify their role. This should cover the public sphere as well as more specific cases, for instance in the events sector.
CSV deputy Laurent Mosar welcomes this willingness to revise the law.
"It is a good thing if we can all agree that the law should become clearer in this regard. I am just surprised that this is suddenly being requested now that Luxembourg City has taken this step in the Gare quarter, when it is known that many municipalities and even the State has been using these services for years."
Marc Goergen from the Pirate Party agreed the law needs revising. According to him, however, the law should ban private security agents from doing surveillance in the public space.
"This puts us in a dangerous situation. This is what the police is for, with agents who were trained for such tasks and who can be trusted. The question with security companies is: who is this person following you? Who is reporting you? Maybe they simply don't like you for whatever reason, and decide to call the police."
The companies and their agents do have to prove they are doing their job honourably. There are around 30 such companies in Luxembourg.
At the same time, Laurent Mosar wanted to stress how positively many residents of the City, of which he is an alderman, had reacted to the patrols around the station. The current contract with the security company runs out at the end of the month and will now be reviewed. Laurent Mosar did not want to rule out that it will be extended, and even that additional teams might be employed to patrol in Bonnevoie.
