Acquisitions and Dispositions Acquisitions and Dispositions - Dispositions (Details) - French airport security services company - USD ($) $ in Millions		12 Months Ended
Jun. 01, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Disposal Date	Jun. 01, 2018
Percent of shares sold	100.00%
Net sales price	$ 14.0
Gain on sale of business	$ 10.3
Annual revenues		$ 79.0

Disposal Group, Not Discontinued Operation, Percent of Business Sold

No definition available.

Name:	bco_DisposalGroupNotDiscontinuedOperationPercentofBusinessSold
Namespace Prefix:	bco_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Date the entity disposed of a business or a group of assets, in CCYY-MM-DD format.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalDate1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:dateItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of consideration received or receivable for the disposal of assets and liabilities, including discontinued operation.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationConsideration
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of revenue attributable to disposal group, including, but not limited to, discontinued operation.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5B
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64827811&loc=SL51721673-107760

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationRevenue
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount before tax of gain (loss) recognized on the sale or disposal of a disposal group. Excludes discontinued operations.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 360
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 5
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68055307&loc=d3e2443-110228

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 360
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84176398&loc=d3e2941-110230

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupNotDiscontinuedOperationGainLossOnDisposal
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsAxis=bco_FrenchairportsecurityservicescompanyMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: