February 21, 2019

A Brief History of the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS)

Source: https://www.bsis.ca.gov/about_us/history.shtml

Regulation of the private security industry began in 1915, when California enacted a licensing requirement for private investigators. The history of the industry in the United States, however, dates back nearly another century. One of its founders was Allan Pinkerton, who immigrated to this country in 1843. By 1850, he had founded the Chicago-based Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which would quickly become the industry's largest private security companies. Among the Agency's main customers were the railroads, which had to contend with outlaws who robbed trains of cargo and passengers of personal possessions. In the mid-1800s, there were no federal authorities to chase outlaws across state and territorial lines, and local law enforcement was too poorly equipped to pursue fleeing gangs very far. Therefore, the job fell to crime victims and their hired agents. The Pinkerton Agency's work for the railroads helped build an international reputation for the company.

In addition to tracking down and apprehending criminals, the early private security industry performed many other duties now associated with federal and state law enforcement: guarding interstate railroad and stagecoach shipments , investigating crimes and providing security advice to banks and other businesses that were frequent targets of outlaws. Much of this work diminished when federal and local agencies improved their law enforcement capabilities shortly after the turn of the 20th century. However, the industry had grown considerably by that time, with large numbers of people working as private guards, detectives and other security-related jobs, many of them armed. That growth was part of the reason that regulation became necessary.