Raises important questions about the constituencies and social functions of both public and private police from the 1850's to the 1920's. At first the agency was seen as an alternative tot he police for those fearful of expanding governmental power. In the nineteenth centure, the private police agency could fill the gap left by inadequate public police activity and jurisdiction. Pinkerton agents were soon famous for their incredible success in detecting crime and apprehending criminals. But they were also dislike fro their coercive role in labor disputes and feared for the threat to privacy that detection work in general represented.