(, ) is the term in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and the German-speaking parts of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

for the Railway police.

Germany

was the name of the former Railway police of

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and fell under the jurisdiction of the federal railway company. officers investigated trespassing on rail property, assaults against passengers, terrorism threats targeting the railway, arson, tagging of graffiti on railroad rolling stock or buildings, signal vandalism, pickpocketing, ticket fraud, robbery and theft of personal belongings, baggage or freight. They also investigated train/vehicle collisions and hazardous materials releases. In 1992 the railway security mission was transferred to the which resulted in the merger of the into the Federal Border Guard Force. The BGS had already taken on these duties in 1990 for the territory of the former

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, replacing the former East German . The was then renamed the (

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

) on July 1, 2005, and this force is currently responsible for security and passenger checks on the German railway system.

Switzerland

Switzerland never had a separate transport police because all rail employees had limited police authority. However, due to the introduction of trains with no conductors in the late 1990s, crime in trains increased and the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

rail company trained officers for its driver-only commuter trains. In 2002 the SBB-CFF-FFS merged its force with the private security company Securitas AG and the resulting Securitrans is now the force that protects Switzerland's trains, passengers, rail property and rail workers. Since 2011, the rail police has been reorganised, and the Transport Police of Switzerland (Transportpolizei) are state employees, with all officers attending two years of police academy training with final certification. Transportpolizei officers are sworn as officers to the Swiss Confederation, and thus have the same power to arrest as any other cantonal police officers. As their state counterparts, they usually carry a

SIG Sauer SIG Sauer is since the 1970s a combined brand name of several Firearms manufacturing companies, with SIG referring to ''Swiss Industry Group'' originally founded 1853, while the latter part comes from Sauer & Sohn, founded in 1751 in Germany a ...

P225 and pepper sprays as weapons, along with handcuffs for restrain options.

External links

Bundespolizei home page (in German)Information brochure about the ''Bundespolizei'' (in German and English)

Swiss rail police homepage in English
Specialist law enforcement agencies of Switzerland Defunct law enforcement agencies of Germany Police units of Germany Railroad police agencies {{Law enforcement in Germany, state=collapsed de:Bahnpolizei pt:Bahnpolizei pl:Straż Ochrony Kolei

Germany

Switzerland

See also

External links