Legal Aspects of Transit and Intermodal Transportation Programs. Topic 20-03. Policing and Public Transportation

Public transportation agencies strive to offer safe, clean, courteous, and accessible service for the safety, convenience, and comfort of their customers. To achieve these standards, public transportation agencies must enforce rules and police their system against problems like vagrancy, trespassing, vandalism, and violence. Some agencies have their own dedicated police force; others rely on local police. In either case, the policing of public transportation systems raises a variety of legal questions like coordination among forces, who has jurisdiction when a crime crosses city/county lines, the distinction between civil and criminal behavior, constitutional search and seizure issues, balancing public safety concerns with Second Amendment rights, evidentiary demands, and public records laws. In addition, public transportation systems rely upon police forces to enforce customer codes of conduct and to prevent stations and vehicles from becoming shelters for persons experiencing homelessness. The objective of this research is to produce a report that provides practical advice and a summary of the law for lawmakers, police forces, public transportation agencies, and their attorneys to consult when making decisions about how to police public transportation systems. This research will result in (1) a comprehensive summary of the constitutional issues applicable to the policing of public transportation systems; and (2) a review of select public transportation agencies as examples of the organizational and contractual structures used to effectively police vehicles and premises.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5016
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $70000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project J-05, Topic 20-03

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Transit Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Chisholm-Smith, Gwen

• Start Date: 20210301
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Civil rights; Constitutional law; Crimes involving transportation; Discrimination; Homeless persons; Intermodal transportation; Law enforcement; Legal factors; Police operations; Public relations; Public transit
• Subject Areas: Law; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01745604
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project J-05, Topic 20-03
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Jul 20 2020 3:08PM