Biography of Allen Pinkerton
Heather Smith
CJS/250
08/02/12
Denise Mowder

Allen Pinkerton was a man that people automatically respected. He was a man that had a sight for security and many different companies looked to him for help with their security problems and to make sure that their businesses were safe. He could also do things and go places that the public police could not. In 1855, he was asked by six Midwestern railroad companies to establish a railroad police agency, and at this time he was only 35 years old and a deputy of Cook County, part of the railroad police agency, and he was also under contract with the federal government to protect the Post Office from robbery, and called on for detective tasks. Pinkerton formed the Pinkerton Protective Patrol in 1958, which began as a small agency that had uniformed night watchmen. These night watchmen were contracted out to businesses to offer night watches for protection of their businesses.
As businesses in the United States expanded, so did the private security industry. Pinkerton’s attempts to secure the railroad industry may have been the most notorious of these efforts. After Pinkerton’s death, his sons carried on the business, and a noticeable shift from detection to prevention began to take place. Labor problems produced riots and left industry leaders looking for the help of private protection agents to ensure protection of their industry and related property. Efforts to protect high-profile business leaders became an advantage financially for the private security indutry. Within a decade of Allan’s death, his sons opened six new offices, and preventive patrol efforts comprised a significant source of revenue for the company. “‘Pinkerton men’ became a household word, a word of hate in the street and a word of comfort in the mansions.

The Pinkerton’s men responded to a strike in Homestead via boat in July of 1829. Strikers on the shore had weapons, signaling to the boat and the Pinkerton’s to turn around. In answer, the Pinkertons turned the Winchesters on the men and the Pinkertons finally stopped but it was not until twelve men had been killed. That night the detectives were badly beaten and shipped out of town by a mob of rioter’s by train. In response to the social problems that resulted, the Pinkerton’s went under investigation by both branches of Congress. Huge numbers were sworn in as deputies, by either the private Pinkerton agency or county sheriffs, in an attempt to stop the violence. It appears that many groups, including business leaders, workers, law enforcement officers, and government officials, were all trying to determine what might be the best approach to counter the violence that had become common throughout the United States at this time. Pinkerton had a major effect on the way private policing was done and he also made a huge impact on many different situations that came about at that time. He was a highly intelligent man that used his knowledge and experience to stop a lot of criminal activity that was going on in that time of history.

References: chapter1