Two of us have been seeing the railway police around the Cranbrook railyards a fair amount the last few days.
We were wondering what their duties were and who trained them whether it was the RCMP or the railway company.
Anyone here know what the score is here?
I believe the CPR still trains its own police force, and rather large too, a lot of their work entails safety rules in all phases of the railway, by the way, we used to call them "Cinder Dicks’’ a long time a go, get it ? cinders from steam engines—dicks from detectives.
Eh? In most states there is a police academy of some sort that officers must attend. They need not have attended prior to hire, but must do so shortly there after.
All security police must have attended these POST classes. They are then licensed by the state as police officers. Any agency may hire police officers to provide police protection for their property, but they still have police powers across the state. A campus police officer may make an arrest off campus, but of course if he is not in the service of his employer at that time he is not covered under the terms of his employment.
This is different from a security guard which has not had this training, is not licensed by the state and may not make arrests.
Railroad Police are police officers and have all police powers.
ROAR
Back in the day, railroads hired some of the police ‘off the street’ and trained them for their railroad duties. Now a days, most, if not all RR Police are hired from other law enforcement organizations - city, county, state and occasionally federal.
In most states RR Police obtain that state’s ‘Police Commission’ and they have the full police powers of any other policeman in that state. Their main interests are the protection of company property, facilities and employees as well as protection for the commodities that have been entrusted to the carrier for movement. Secondarily they are charged with having a good working relationship with all the local police authorities within their territory so that the local authorities can become a ‘force multiplier’ when the need arises.
Railway police are appointed by a judge of the Superior Court of Canada, and are deemed peace officers, they do have the same authority as other peace officers, excluding some jurisdictions. Various institutions train them whether Provincial or Federal.
Badges ! Badges ! we do need stinkin’ badges !
I don’t know about Canada. However, ever since 9/11 I see more New Jersey Transit police than ever. Every time I go into Newark Penn Station there is at least one group of them conferring.
Can’t speak for other places, but out here these guys are licensed federal marshalls and a good number of these folks are ex- big city cops/ detective grade.
One Railway Police story I always liked happened not too long after the CP station was opened in Palliser Square.
The WB Canadian was about twelve hours late coming into Calgary which put it about the time third trick would have started. On this train there was a large steel case containing about a million dollars worth of brand new currency for the Bank of Canada branch here, that they would distribute to the chartered banks. Arrangements had been made for an armored car to meet the train and take the case over to the bank. But the bank was now closed, so the armored car wouldn’t come until the next day. So they locked the policeman into the baggage room and he had to sit on the case until the armored car came the following morning!
Bruce
Frisco used to train their special agents, some probably did have law enforcement background. When I was a kid and Dad and I spent time at the Yards where he worked, you could always tell the “bulls”, because they wore suits and hats. They’d see us and come over to talk for a while, but their eyes were always alert in case they saw a trespasser. They did have to take hobos off trains at times.
I talked to a couple of UP agents when #844 came to town and they were dressed in t-shirts and khakis. They looked a lot more comfortable and didn’t stick out so noticeably. They agreed.
“Cinder dick” have not heard that term in a long time, Dad always called them “bulls”.