The New York City Transit Police Department was a
law enforcement agency
A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.
Jurisdiction
LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction.
LEAs ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
that existed from 1953 (with the creation of the
New York City Transit Authority
The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. P ...
) to 1995, and is currently part of the
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
authorized the hiring of special patrolmen for the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
. These patrolmen eventually became officers of the Transit Police. In 1949, the department was officially divorced from the
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
, but was eventually fully re-integrated in 1995 as the
Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department by New York City Mayor
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1 ...
.
In 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed
Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau, but remained part of the Police Department. Headquarters for the NYPD Transit Bureau are located at 130 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights.
[New York City Government](_blank)
, 2002, Accessed August 29, 2007.
History
Since the 1860s, the New York City Subway's predecessors operated lines running at grade level and on elevated structures. Between 1900 and October 27, 1904, the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT w ...
(IRT) built
the first subway line in Manhattan. Both the IRT and the competing
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...
(BRT, later
BMT) were privately held operators who operated city-owned subway lines. They hired their own police. However, in 1932, the city-owned
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
(IND) opened; the IND lines originally had "station supervisors" employed to police them, their names having been taken from the
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
's hiring list.
The creation of the New York City Transit Police came about on November 17, 1933, six men were sworn in as New York State Railway Police. They were unarmed but were still responsible for the safety of the passengers on the IND as well as guarding property. Two years later, 20 "station supervisors, class B" were added for police duty. Responsible for assisting in the opening and closing of doors and announcing destinations, these 26 "specials" were soon given powers of arrest, but only on the IND line. In 1937, 160 more men were added to this police force. Additionally, 3 lieutenants, 1 captain, and 1 inspector from the NYPD were assigned as supervisors. When the privately run IRT and BMT were taken over by New York City in 1940, the small patrol force on the IND line nearly doubled in size. Now part of the Civil Service system, more Transit supervisors were needed. In 1942, the first promotional exam was given for the title of "special patrolman grade 2" – or what is now known as a sergeant.
The Code of Criminal Procedure was changed in 1947 granting transit patrolmen peace officer status and by 1950, the number of "specials" reached 563. The following year, exams were held for both Transit sergeants and lieutenants. In 1953, the New York City Transit Authority came into being and assumed control over all the subway lines from the old
New York City Board of Transportation
The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in ...
.
Beginning in 1949, the question as to who should supervise the Transit Police Department was one which was carefully scrutinized over the next five years by various city officials. The issue being considered was, "Should Transit be taken over by the NYPD?" In 1955, the decision was made that the Transit Police Department would become a separate and distinctly different department, ending almost two decades of rule by the NYPD. The Civil Service Commission established a new test for transit recruits, and on April 4, the first appointments from the list were made. An NYPD lieutenant, Thomas O'Rourke, was also designated the first commanding officer of the Transit Police Department. Soon after, Lieutenant O'Rourke along with 9 others, passed the captain's exam. Captain O'Rourke was then appointed as the first chief of the new department. With crime on the rise, the number of transit officers increased so that by 1966, the Department had grown to 2,272 officers. That year, Robert H. Rapp was appointed chief by the NYC Transit Authority. Under Chief Rapp, and at the direction of the mayor, an ambitious new anti-crime program got underway. The program had a goal of assigning an officer to each of New York City's subway trains between the hours of 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM. And the Transit Police Department continued to grow. By early 1975, the department comprised nearly 3,600 members.
In 1975, a former NYPD chief inspector and sometime City Council president,
Sanford Garelik
Sanford Daniel Garelik (August 16, 1918 – November 19, 2011) was an American politician from New York City. Garelik also served as the first Jewish chief inspector of the New York Police Department.
Born in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a bor ...
, was appointed chief of the Transit Police Department.
Determined to reorganize the Transit Police Department, Chief Garelik was also successful in instilling a new sense of pride and professionalism among the ranks. However, the fiscal crisis that began that year was an unexpected blow – especially to transit cops. Over the next five years, layoffs and attrition would reduce their numbers to fewer than 2,800. On September 12, 1979, in a sweeping shake up, Chief Garelik was ousted and replaced by Chief James Meehan former Chief of Personnel of NYPD. New officers would not be hired until 1980. By that time, Transit Police was a very old department personnel wise, losing many officers each month to retirement. The first recruits were hired off the list of NYPD exam # 8155 given on June 30, 1979. This first wave of new hires was historic as it contained the first female officers ever sworn into the Transit Police. This required many of the older districts to be renovated to provide locker room facilities for women. Shortly thereafter, Transit Police resumed their own exams. By the early 1990s the Transit Police Department had regained all of its former strength and had increased even further.
In 1991, the Transit Police gained federal accreditation under Chief
William Bratton
William Joseph Bratton CBE (born October 6, 1947) is an American law enforcement officer and businessman who served two terms as the New York City Police Commissioner (1994–1996 and 2014–2016). He previously served as the Commissioner of th ...
. The department became one of only 175 law-enforcement agencies in the country and only the second in the New York State to achieve that distinction, the other being
Suffolk County Police Department
The Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) provides police services to 5 of the 10 Towns in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York. It is one of the largest police agencies in the United States, with approximately ...
. The following year it was also accredited by the State of New York, and by 1994, there were almost 4,500 uniformed and civilian members of the department, making it the sixth-largest police force in the United States. Bratton was also responsible for upgrading the antiquated radio system, changing the service weapon to a 9mm
Glock
Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was th ...
, and greatly improving the morale of the department.
Over time, however, the separation between the NYPD and the NYC Transit Police Department created more and more problems. Redundancy of units, difficulty in communications and differences in procedures all created frustration and inefficiency. As part of his mayoral campaign, candidate
Rudolph Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
pledged to end the long-unresolved discussion and merge all three of New York City's police departments (the NYPD, the Transit Police, and the
New York City Police Department Housing Bureau
The New York City Police Department Housing Bureau is responsible for providing the security and delivery of police services to about 420,000 people living in New York City's public housing projects. They are stationed in Police Service Areas (PS ...
) into a single, coordinated force. Mayor Giuliani took office on January 1, 1994, and immediately appointed William Bratton as NYPD Police Commissioner whose great expertise at police work undertook the mission to fulfill Giuliani's promise. Discussions between the city and the New York City Transit Authority which included a threat of laying off the entire Transit Police Department, produced a memorandum of understanding, and at 12:01 Am on April 2, 1995, the NYC Transit Police was consolidated with the New York City Police Department to become a new bureau within the NYPD called NYPD Transit Bureau. This consolidation is unofficially referred to by some as "The Hostile Takeover Of 95." This term originated with the Transit Police Union, as well as the members of the Transit Police who were opposed to the merger. After a reorganization of the Department in February 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau. The true reasoning behind the consolidation was Giuliani's desire to create one police payroll instead of three separate ones, and to bring all three police departments under his direct control. Prior to April 2, 1995, neither the Transit Police nor the Housing Police was under the purview of the police commissioner, who was in turn the direct subordinate of the mayor. While Members of the Transit Police were paid by the Transit Authority, and those of the Housing Police was paid by the Housing Authority, the funds for the payrolls did not actually come from those agencies, but were provided monthly by The City of New York. Giuliani won his quest for the consolidation by withholding the payroll funds for both police departments.
Jobs of the Transit Police
![NYPD Transit Dist 1 59th St jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/NYPD_Transit_Dist_1_59th_St_jeh.jpg)
One main task of the Transit Police was its defense of the subway system from defacement.
Graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
was very prominent throughout the subway system by the mid-1980s and the city government took a hard line in response. The Transit Police, and specifically a new unit called the Vandal Squad, led by its commanding officer, Lieutenant Kenneth Chiulli, began to
fine
Fine may refer to:
Characters
* Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny''
* Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano
Legal terms
* Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
and
arrest
An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
those painting graffiti. Founded in 1980, the Vandal Squad's mission was to protect the subway system from serious criminal acts of destruction like kicking out windows and throwing seats out of train cars. It was only with the Clean Car Program of 1984 that graffiti became the primary focus of this specialized unit. They also made a policy to remove any work of graffiti within 24 hours. By the end of the 1980s, the Transit Police had effectively solved the problem of graffiti in the subway system.
[New York City Police Department](_blank)
2002, Accessed August 29, 2007.
The Transit Police also handled both quality of life crimes and violent crime in the subway system, with uniform officers, plain clothes anti-crime, as well as a detective squad in each district. While NYPD operated out of precincts, Transit Police operated out of districts with each district covering a different part of the system. Each district had at least 1 RMP patrol car on the surface to provide rapid response to stations requiring police action, and to transport officers with prisoners to central booking, or back to the district. The typical uniformed Transit Police officer worked alone. Plain clothes officers, such as anti-crime, worked in pairs. The Decoy Squad worked in a group, with each member playing a specific role. New hires known as probationary officers were most often assigned to the Tactical Patrol Force known as TPF. The TPF was responsible strictly for train patrol. TPF officers were assigned various trains that they were responsible for during their tour. Patrol required the officers to ride the train for the entire route which meant the TPF crossed both borough lines as well as District lines. At times this caused conflict between the TPF supervisors and the local district supervisors as to who truly had jurisdiction over the TPF. To combat fare evasion, Transit Police had the Summons Squad, whose officers worked in plain clothes in pairs, with the prime objective of issuing summonses system wide for fare evasion, littering and smoking.
Prior to the 1990s, all summons issued for fare evasion were appearance tickets in criminal court. The typical penalty was $10 or 2 days. After the creation of the Transit Adjudication Bureau (TAB), summonses were primarily handled by the Transit Adjudication Bureau, a division of New York Civil Court, with the fines going back to the Transit Authority. Even then, Criminal Court summonses could still be issued in lieu of a TAB summons but the TAB summons was the preferred option to help recoup the lost revenue from fare evasion.
The Transit Police also had their own internal affairs, with field investigative officers nicknamed "The Shoo-Fly Squad" by the rank and file officers. The shoo-flys would travel throughout the subway system with the express purpose of finding officers committing any form of violation while on post and giving that officer a "complaint". A common warning that a "shoo-fly" was in a particular area would be a radio check followed by a forward and backward count to five. Civilian complaints were handled at
370 Jay Street in Brooklyn.
Other specialized Transit Police units included the Emergency Medical Rescue Unit (EMRU) which handled major emergencies on the subway system, the most common being a passenger struck by train, referred to as "man under" if the passenger was run over, "space case" if the passenger had fallen into the gap between the train and the platform, and "dragging" if the passenger had been dragged by the train. A lesser known unit was the Surface Crime Unit (Bus Squad). It consisted of about sixty officers who patrolled the NYC buses and bus depots. There was also a K9 Unit for subway patrol, Vandals Squad to combat graffiti, the Decoy Squad to target robberies, Pickpocket Squad to go after pickpockets, and a Homeless Outreach Unit that would remove homeless persons from the subway and transport them to homeless shelters where various services were offered.
Line of duty deaths
During the existence of the New York City Transit Police Department, 13 officers died in the line of duty.
The Officer Down Memorial Page
Accessed January 26, 2008
See also
*List of law enforcement agencies in New York
there were 514 law enforcement agencies in New York State employing 66,472 Police Officers, some agencies employ Peace / Special Officers. (about 341 for each 100,000 residents) according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics' ''Census of Stat ...
*Amtrak Police Department
The Amtrak Police Department (APD) is a quasi-federal railroad police department and the law enforcement agency of Amtrak (also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation), the government-owned passenger train system in the United Stat ...
*Utah Transit Authority Police Department
The Utah Transit Authority Public Safety Department is the law enforcement arm of the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) transit district in northern Utah, United States, with headquarters in Murray. UTA is a public transit district government agency ...
*BART Police
The BART Police (BARTPD), officially the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department, is the transit police agency of the BART rail system in the U.S. state of California. The department has approximately three hundred police personnel, including ov ...
*British Transport Police
, nativename =
, abbreviation = BTP
, patch =
, patchcaption =
, logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg
, logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police
, badge =
, badgecaption =
, f ...
*
*New Jersey Transit Police Department
The New Jersey Transit Police Department (NJTPD) is a transit police agency of the New Jersey Transit Corporation in the state of New Jersey. As provided by NJS Title 27:25-15.1, New Jersey Transit Police Officers have "general authority, withou ...
*Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police (also known as the T Police or Transit Police and colloquially known as the "Subway Cops") is a police force which has primary jurisdiction on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA ...
* New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department
* Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police Department
*Transit police
Transit police (also known as transport police, railway police, railroad police and several other terms) are specialized police agencies employed either by a common carrier (a transit district, railway, railroad, bus line, or any other mass tr ...
*Transportation in New York City
The transportation system of New York City is a network of complex infrastructural systems. New York City, being the most populous city in the United States, has a transportation system which includes one of the largest subway systems in the wo ...
References
External links
New York City Police Department Transit Bureau
{{New York City
1933 establishments in New York City
1995 disestablishments in New York (state)
Defunct law enforcement agencies of New York (state)
History of New York City
Transit police departments of the United States