If they're private corporations, shouldn't they be open to competition from other private corporations? I.e., shouldn't any organization that wants to be able to incorporate as a 501(c)(3) and have the same law enforcement privileges they do?
If their answer to that is "well, we have this special contract from the government...", then they are agents of the government and can't hide behind the "private corporation" shield for activities they undertake as such agents. Certainly that's how it works for Federal government contractors: if the GAO audits a Federal program, the contractors who implement it can't hide their records from the auditors with the excuse "oh, we're private corporations".
I think this is more like if you and your software engineering buddies incorporate some kind of organization to own your kayaks, and then someone asks for the log of the kayaks' usage, and you're like:
"we may have paid for those kayaks, but we gave them to this other organization that is basically us, but it is not the organization that owes you transparency, so fuck off."
If their answer to that is "well, we have this special contract from the government...", then they are agents of the government and can't hide behind the "private corporation" shield for activities they undertake as such agents. Certainly that's how it works for Federal government contractors: if the GAO audits a Federal program, the contractors who implement it can't hide their records from the auditors with the excuse "oh, we're private corporations".