Allan Pinkerton affiliated with the notorious Banditti of the Prairie. After observing their movements for some time he informed the local sheriff, who arrested them. This later led to Pinkerton being appointed, in 1849, as the first police detective in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. In 1850, he partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton & Co, and finally Pinkerton National Detective Agency, still in existence today as Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a subsidiary of Securitas AB. Pinkerton's business insignia was a wide open eye with the caption "We never sleep." As the US
William J. Burns International Detective Agency William J. Burns International Detective Agency The William J. Burns International Detective Agency was a private detective agency in the United States, which was operated by William J. Burns. It was headquartered in Briarcliff Manor, New York from 1969 to 1983. The Burns Agency was hired to track down Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizers in the aftermath of the Wheatland Hop Riot. Burns agents infiltrated the Industrial Workers of the World during an organizing drive in the copper mines of Arizona. Activities included issuing fake IWW membership cards, infiltrating the workforce, spying, and intercepting the mail of organizers.