Transit police

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2012)

Transit police are a specialized police agency or unit employed by a common carrier, which could be a transit district, railroad, bus line, other transport carrier, or the state. Their mandate is to prevent and investigate crimes committed against the carrier or by or against passengers or other customers of the carrier, or those committed on the carrier's property.

A transit police force may consist of officers employed directly by a transit system, such as the Amtrak Police, or it may exist as a specialized unit of a local police force, such as the Transit Police Services Bureau of the Orange County, California Sheriff's Department, which serves the Orange County Transportation Authority or South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service^[1] which serves the transit system of southern British Columbia, Canada.

Where the term "transit police" is used for the police working for a railroad, it usually refers to a railroad providing urban mass transit (such as a city elevated system or subway) as opposed to long-distance rail carriage. Police who work either for a private non-passenger railroad or long-haul rail carrier are usually referred to as "railroad police" or "railway police". In Britain, most of the rail system, including the London Underground, is policed by a national transport police agency, the British Transport Police. Some transit police departments have full policing powers,such as BART Police or SEPTA Transit Police or Utah Transit Authority Police Department, while in other areas, they have limited powers and are classed as special police or special constables with limited powers.

Some of the crimes transit police and railroad police investigate include trespassing on the right-of-way of a railroad, assaults against passengers, tagging of graffiti on railroad rolling stock and buses or bus stops, pickpocketing, ticket fraud, robbery and theft of personal belongings, baggage or freight, and drug dealing at transit stations.

[edit] Jurisdiction and authority

Federal and state statutes determine the jurisdiction and authority of all police departments, including transit police. Most transit police departments have the same police authority as any other federal state and local police agencies, such as the British Transport Police, New Jersey Transit Police Department, BART Police, Maryland Transit Administration Police, DART Police, SEPTA Transit Police, Utah Transit Authority Police Department, and the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service have rather extensive jurisdictions, including traffic enforcement, with arrest powers on and off property. Transit and railroad police tend to have better results in finding perpetrators of crimes they investigate than public police forces, possibly due to specialization and smaller case loads.

[edit] List of specialised transit/transport police agencies and departments

[edit] Australia

New South Wales

Commuter Crime Unit, New South Wales Police Force^[2]
Transit Officers, Rail Corporation New South Wales^[3]

Queensland

Railway Squad, Queensland Police^[4]
Transit Officers, Queensland Rail^[5]

South Australia

Transit Services Branch, South Australia Police (all public transport in Adelaide)^[6]

Victoria

Transit Safety Division, Victoria Police (predominantly operate in Melbourne)^[7]
Authorised Officers employed by Public Transport operator companies

Western Australia

Police Rail Unit, Western Australia Police (operating in Perth)
Transit Officers, Public Transport Authority of Western Australia

[edit] Canada

[edit] Railway police

[edit] Transit police

Because policing is a provincial responsibility, police powers vary in different jurisdictions. With the exception of South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service, who have full policing powers within the province of British Columbia, urban transit police forces are special constabularies or by-law enforcement officers with limited policing powers.

Calgary Transit Public Safety & Enforcement Unit
South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service
Société de transport de Montréal (STM) Sureté et Controle Inspecteur
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Transit Enforcement Unit
GO Transit Special Constables
YRT/Viva Special Constable Services

[edit] China, People's Republic of

Cities in China which have rapid transit systems all have their transit police force associated to the local public security bureau. There isn't any non-governmental police force nor any police institutes under the transit authority, despite the National Rail somehow have a police force under the Ministry of Railways.

However the structure of institutions can be vary from city to city. For example, cities like Tianjin and Chengdu might have a joint public transportation force of division level, operates on all the taxis, bus routes, coaches, rapid transit and ferry lines as well as transportation hubs inside city limit; while Chongqing and Xi'an^[8] have tighter transit cop brigades focused exclusively on protecting the mass transit lines. Again, all these agencies are supervised by the PSBs of higher level.

[edit] France

Police Régionale des Transports (Police Nationale) (Operates on Suburban trains, and Paris Métro)
Service National de Police Ferroviaire (Police Nationale-Direction Centrale de la Police aux Frontières) (Operates on main lines trains)
Service Interdépartemental de Sécurité dans les Transports en Commun (SISTC)(Police Nationale- Direction Centrale de la Sécurité Publique)
Surveillance Générale (Suge, operates on SNCF railways. This private service, which dépends to SNCF, has restricted police powers)
Groupe de Protection et de Sécurisation des Réseaux (GPSR, operates on RATP railways. This private service, which dépends to RATP, has restricted police powers)
Police des Transports de l'Agglo Orléans Val de Loire (Bus,Tramway,SNCF)