What are Railroad police?
Railroad police are weird. They are employees of the railroad (a private company). But get their basic authority from the federal and state governments and they can cross state lines like a federal agent. Basically, a railroad police officer needs to be commissioned in one state. Then they have law enforcement authority on railroad property in every state where the railroad has rail. Also, if a State allows it (most do) a railroad officer may have general law enforcement authority over an entire state. Their basic function is investigating train accidents and protecting company property from tresspassers, vandals, thieves, ect. My city has many miles of track/crossings and field offices for Norfolk Southern and BNSF PD nearby. So we see them quite a bit. At times, they will watch train crossings in our town and issue citations if they catch people running the arms. But if they observe other violations of the law, they have the full authority to act on that and take you to jail. We occa
