Dynamics, results and challenges in the process of licensing security officers in Serbia

The modern age brings daily changes in the safe environment and new security risks for protected values, which creates the need for the engagement of all security subjects and resources at their disposal, so as to successfully combat new forms of crime. The private security sector has experienced a large-scale expansion with the development of society, and this development is directly related to the security requirements of clients to effectively respond to the increasing challenges in suppressing and controlling crime and threats to the safety of persons, property and business. In order to adequately respond to security risks and to prepare security officers for timely identification of the said risks and proper response to them, the Law on Private Security defined the licensing of both legal and natural persons. The subject matter and the goal of this research is to indicate the importance of licensing in the field of private security with a critical review thereof given the time lapse since the implementation of the aforementioned legal provisions and experience from practice. The authors also wanted this paper to point out some of the problems and shortcomings related to the licensing process itself, which occur in practice, based on the experiential conclusions.