Amtrak Police

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak, was created in 1970 when President Richard M. Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act. Amtrak, created in response to the bankruptcies of a number of intercity passenger railroads, assumed the responsibility of long-distance intercity rail services on May 1, 1971. Along with other personnel from the railroads who were transferred to Amtrak were a number of police officers who had been employed by the railroads that became part of the new, public-funded rail network.

Since the creation of Amtrak, these officers have been recognized as federal police officers based on the statutory authority provided under the United States Code 545J, Section 104.305-45. Under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 49 (Transportation), Subtitle V (Rail Programs), Part C (Passenger Transportation), Chapter 243 (Amtrak), Section 24305 (General Authority), Amtrak is authorized to employ rail police to provide security for rail passengers and property of Amtrak. Although they are federal officers who receive their training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, because most officers are assigned in passenger stations and along the rail rights of way to enforce local and state laws, they must also comply with the training requirements established for police officers in each state in which they work.

It is not unusual for the more than 350 Amtrak officers assigned around the country to be licensed as police officers in a number of states, providing them with the authority to enforce not only federal law, but also all state and local laws and providing them with police authority to preserve the peace, detain or arrest offenders, and enforce laws pertaining to crimes committed against Amtrak employees, passengers, and property.

The Amtrak system is vast; in 2004, Amtrak provided service to 500 stations in 46 states, operated more than 22,000 route miles, and on an average weekday, operated more than 250 trains a day that carried more than 66,000 riders. In fiscal year 2003, more than 24 million passengers were carried, a record. Amtrak is also the nation's largest provider of commuter rail services operated through contractual service agreements with state and regional authorities. In such cases, Amtrak operates the service and maintains the physical plant in exchange for an annual payment. Under this arrangement, Amtrak serves an additional 62 million passengers a year on Caltrain (San Francisco–Gilroy, California), Coasters (San Diego, California), MARC (Baltimore, Maryland–Washington, D.C.), Metrolink (counties around Los Angeles, California), Shore Line East (New Haven–New London, Connecticut), and Virginia Railway Express (Fredericksburg/Manassas, Virginia–Washington, D.C.). On the busy Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C., in addition to Amtrak trains, some commuter rail transit systems operate on tracks owned by Amtrak, including New Jersey Transit (NJT) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA's) Long Island Rail Road.

The majority of the officers of the Amtrak police are assigned to major city transportation facilities that are owned by Amtrak, where they either provide the only uniformed police presence or share policing jurisdiction with railroad, transit, or local police agencies. In some parts of the country, they also patrol areas that are not owned by Amtrak but are under its control through various agreements with other railroads. In addition, they are responsible for a full range of police services at Amtrak's nonpublic facilities, including office buildings, rail yards, rights of way, and rail storage areas that house Amtrak's rolling stock, which includes 425 locomotives and more than 2,000 passenger coaches, including the Acela Express trains that provide high-speed service on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C.

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