Modern era
During the 1930s, the Ford Motor Company used Pinkertons to break unions at its Ford River Rouge complex, notoriously during the Battle of the Overpass.[28]
Due to its conflicts with labor unions, the word "Pinkerton" continues to be associated by labor organizers and union members with strikebreaking.[29] Pinkerton diversified from labor spying following revelations publicized by the La Follette Committee hearings in 1937,[30] and the firm's criminal detection work also suffered from the police modernization movement, which saw the rise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the bolstering of detective branches and resources of the public police. With less of the labor and criminal investigation work on which Pinkertons thrived for decades, the company became increasingly involved in protection services, and in the 1960s, even the word "detective" disappeared from the agency's letterhead.[31] The company now focuses on threat intelligence, risk management, executive protection, and active-shooter response.[32]
In 1999, the company was bought by Securitas AB, a Swedish security company, for $384 million,[33] followed by the acquisition of the William J. Burns Detective Agency (founded in 1910), a longtime Pinkerton rival, to create (as a division of the parent) Securitas Security Services USA. Today, the company's headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[34]
In December 2018, Securitas AB issued a cease-and-desist notice to video game company Take-Two Interactive over the use of the Pinkerton name and badge imagery in Red Dead Redemption 2. They demanded royalties for each copy of the game sold, or they would take legal action. Take-Two maintained that the Pinkerton name was strongly associated with the Wild West, and its use of the term did not infringe on the Pinkerton trademark.[35] By April 2019, Securitas AB had withdrawn its claim.[36]
In 2020, they were hired by Amazon to spy on warehouse workers for signs of union activity.[37] In 2022, Starbucks reportedly had hired a former Pinkerton employee as part of their union-busting efforts.[38][39]
In 2020, Matthew Dolloff, an unlicensed security guard contracted through Pinkerton, shot and killed Lee Keltner, a conservative protester, in Denver, Colorado. Dolloff had been contracted by Pinkerton to guard a camera crew working for 9News. The camera crew had been assigned to cover rival political groups protesting in Denver. Keltner had told a cameraman to stop filming him; Dolloff then approached Keltner. Keltner slapped Dolloff before spraying him with bear spray, and moments later, Dolloff shot Keltner. Dolloff was arrested, investigated for first-degree murder, and charged with second-degree murder. The charge was later dropped.[40][41][42]
In 2023, Wizards of the Coast hired Pinkerton to seize products from the March of the Machine: The Aftermath card set for the trading card game Magic: The Gathering from YouTuber Dan Cannon of oldschoolmtg. Cannon had published a video on YouTube showing the contents of an order received ahead of the release date from a local game store.[43] Pinkerton used intimidation and legal servings to force compliance.[43][44] This action was met with widespread criticism and condemnation.[45][46][47][48]
