How to become Transit and Railroad Police in 2024

Transit and Railroad Police Protect and police railroad and transit property, employees, or passengers.

Transit and Railroad Police is Also Know as

In different settings, Transit and Railroad Police is titled as

  • Law Enforcement Officer
  • Patrol Man
  • Patrol Officer
  • Patrolman
  • Police Captain
  • Police Patrol Officer
  • Police Specialist
  • Railroad Police
  • Railroad Police Officer
  • Transit Police Officer

Education and Training of Transit and Railroad Police

Transit and Railroad Police is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Transit and Railroad Police

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Transit and Railroad Police

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Transit and Railroad Police

Training Required for Transit and Railroad Police

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Transit and Railroad Police in different industries are

What Do Transit and Railroad Police do?

  • Patrol railroad yards, cars, stations, or other facilities to protect company property or shipments and to maintain order.
  • Examine credentials of unauthorized persons attempting to enter secured areas.
  • Apprehend or remove trespassers or thieves from railroad property or coordinate with law enforcement agencies in apprehensions and removals.
  • Prepare reports documenting investigation activities and results.
  • Investigate or direct investigations of freight theft, suspicious damage or loss of passengers' valuables, or other crimes on railroad property.
  • Direct security activities at derailments, fires, floods, or strikes involving railroad property.
  • Direct or coordinate the daily activities or training of security staff.
  • Interview neighbors, associates, or former employers of job applicants to verify personal references or to obtain work history data.
  • Record and verify seal numbers from boxcars containing frequently pilfered items, such as cigarettes or liquor, to detect tampering.
  • Plan or implement special safety or preventive programs, such as fire or accident prevention.
  • Seal empty boxcars by twisting nails in door hasps, using nail twisters.
  • Monitor transit areas and conduct security checks to protect railroad properties, patrons, and employees.
  • Enforce traffic laws regarding the transit system and reprimand individuals who violate them.
  • Provide training to the public or law enforcement personnel in railroad safety or security.

Qualities of Good Transit and Railroad Police

  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Transit and Railroad Police

  • 35 millimeter cameras
  • Automated external defibrillators AED
  • Biohazard suits
  • Biological hazard detectors
  • Breathalyzers
  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR face shields
  • Chemical hazard detectors
  • Crime scene tape measures
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital video cameras
  • Distance measuring wheels
  • Explosive detectors
  • Filter masks
  • Fingerprint evidence kits
  • First aid kits
  • Laptop computers
  • Metal handcuffs
  • Mobile data computers
  • Multipurpose fire extinguishers
  • Nightsticks
  • Nuclear hazard detectors
  • Pepper spray
  • Personal computers
  • Pistols
  • Plastic handcuffs
  • Police bicycles
  • Police motorcycles
  • Police patrol cars
  • Police rifles
  • Police shotguns
  • Protective gloves
  • Riot helmets
  • Service revolvers
  • Side-handle batons
  • Suspect fingerprinting equipment
  • Two way radios
  • X ray inspection equipment

Technology Skills required for Transit and Railroad Police

  • Crime mapping software
  • Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System IAFIS
  • Law enforcement information databases
  • MapInfo Professional
  • MapInfo StreetPro
  • Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Web browser software