RAILWAY POLICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19472, 6 May 1925, Page 8

RAILWAY POLICE.

PROTECTING PASSENGERS IN AMERICA. Card sharks sometimes got away with gambling tricks on railroad trains, but often a quiet man with a searching glance passes back and forth and the gaming party dissolves, withered by his scrutiny or halted by his admonition. He is the railroad's special agent, and Ids job is to rescue the innocent (states the New York Times). The arm of the law cannot easily reach into the moving train. The police force is too busy elsewhere. Yet on a train, as in the streets, citizens need protection from the operations of pickpockets, confidence men, gamblers, and other species of crooks who find in the leisure of travel a golden chance. The larger trunk lines, employ from one to three hundred men in their police departments, ranging from a chief and his assistants through district and division special agents to train riders, yard patrolmen, and shop and warehouse watchmen. The department may cost from 300,000 to 500,000 dolla-s a year, but, according to varying estimates, it saves many times that sum to the company and its patrons. This man who halts -the gambler is not concerned solely with the individual’s affairs. He looks out for tampering with equipment or attempted or actual wrecking of trains. Even the small town boy who hurls rocks at moving passenger trains will find the special agent on his trail. He has the railroad’s property to protect. He is a railroad with a fairly good idea of operation and a policeman versed in all that pertains to that job. Being a railroad policeman is often a hazardous job. ITe has sometimes to do with the most desperate type of criminal, heading at night for the railroad and stopping at nothing to make his getaway. It is the special agent’s job to halt all trespassers on railroad premises, and ask an explanation for their presence there. Alone in a railroad yard in the dead of night, he may encounter a gaol-breaker, burglar, of murderer who refuses to be questioned or delayed. Modern criminal methods have added to his difficulties. Twenty-five or 30 years ago it was not hard to deal with hoboes ond vagabonds who cribbed a few articles of clothing, cigars, or whisky from standing box cars. As soon as the theft was discovered tlie special agent sent word to local authorities. The thief, as a rule, was quickly and readily located, usually in a corner saloon, spending the proceeds of the sale of his loot. But box car thieves now operate in gangs, clear-headed and heavily armed, making away with entire shipments from moving trains and escaping by automobile. Special agents are now more and more frequently placed as riders on trains, and, in armed squads, thev arc assigned even to patrol hard-surfaced xoado to prevent big-scale thefts.