Private Police out in Force; Splendour in the Hands of 270 Security Guards at Byron Bay

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Byline: Saffron Howden saffron.howden@northernstar.com.au

THESE are just three of the 270 private security guards who will be scoping the perimeter and on the lookout for drugs, fence-jumpers, and anti-social behaviour at this year's Splendour in the Grass festival.

The private police will outnumber the boys and girls in blue in Byron Bay this weekend, as they do every night of the week.

And the phenomenon is not unique to the popular tourist town.

Private security personnel now vastly outnumber police Australia-wide.

Where just a decade ago the balance was reversed, there are now 52,768 people employed full-time in the security industry …