In the early nineteenth century policing was organized on a county basis. Within a few years he had eight additional employees. His methods focused more on preventing crime rather than responding to it. With his detective work increasing and his own family growing, Pinkerton left the force to organize his own agency, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Post Office Department investigating fraud, extortion, and blackmail. Pinkerton's reputation led to an appointment as special agent for the U.S. He became known to respectable citizens and criminals alike because of the number of arrests he made. When the Cook County police force was reorganized, Pinkerton was appointed their first, and only, detective. The city was booming, with both business and crime flourishing. By 1850 the family moved to Chicago where Pinkerton worked for the local and federal government. (Counterfeiting is making a copy of something in order to deceive, and around this time it was so widespread that it was affecting both the local and national economy.) He became a local hero and was sworn in as a deputy sheriff of Kane County, Illinois, in 1846. While searching for wood to make his barrels, Pinkerton accidentally discovered a counterfeit camp headquarters on an island in the middle of a lake, and quickly arranged for the arrest of the criminals. He and Joan started a family in 1846, with three of their children surviving to adulthood. Pinkerton advertised himself as the "Only and Original Cooper of Dundee" and soon had a prosperous business. The couple arrived in the United States and made their home in Dundee, Illinois, a small town settled by Scots just forty miles north of Chicago. He fled the country with his new bride, Joan Carfrae. After a Chartist physical altercation with the authorities in 1842, Allan Pinkerton's name appeared in the royal warrants for arrest. Most used peaceful methods of protest but there was a faction of the Chartist movement that used physical rebellion and rioting for political reform. The "People's Charter," dubbed the "Chartists," was a revolt by the workingmen of the British Isles against the political power of their wealthy landlords. He apprenticed to a cooper, or barrel maker, in 1831 at the age of twelve and became active in a workers' protest movement as a young man. A new lifeĪllan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Isabella McQueen and William Pinkerton, a police sergeant killed in the line of duty when Allan was a child. Dubbed "The Pinks" (short for Pinkerton), his agency handled much of America's criminal investigation before the creation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other modern police organizations. (A detective is a police officer or investigator who investigates crimes and obtains evidence or information.) Allan Pinkerton introduced a number of innovative tools and methods to investigating criminal activity. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was among the first private detective agencies in the world. "The role of detective is a high and honorable calling."įrom the Pinkerton National Detective Agency's code of conduct During the American Civil War (1861–65 war in the United States between the Union, who was opposed to slavery, and the Confederacy, who was in favor of slavery), Pinkerton organized the first government-authorized secret service agency in American history. Credited as a reformer for popularizing private security, he focused primarily on crime prevention and investigation. Allan Pinkerton provided America with a national policing system at a time when there was little federal or state law enforcement.
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