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Canadian National Police Service | |
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Common name | CN Police Service, CN Police North America |
Abbreviation | CNPS |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1923 |
Jurisdictional structure | |
International agency | |
Countries | Canada United States |
Legal jurisdiction | Federal, State, Provincial |
Constituting instrument |
|
General nature | |
Specialist jurisdiction |
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Operational structure | |
Headquarters | 935 de La Gauchetière Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Constables | 95 (as of 2016) [1] |
Special Agents | 15 (as of 2016) [1] |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Canadian National Railway |
Website | |
CN Police Service |
The Canadian National Police Service (commonly referred to as the CN Police or the CN Rail Police) is a private railway police force protecting the property, personnel, and rail infrastructure of the Canadian National Railway in Canada and the United States.
Prior to the First World War, the Government of Canada owned four independent railways: the Intercolonial Railway, which had been established to link the Grand Trunk Railway's line in Montreal with the Port of Halifax; the Prince Edward Island Railway, which fell into Government ownership after going bankrupt in the late 19th century; the Hudson Bay Railway, which had been established to finish a portion of the Canadian Northern Railway; and the National Transcontinental Railway, which had been established to construct the Grand Trunk line from Winnipeg to Moncton. [2] These four railways were organized under Canadian Government Railways, which operated each constituent railway separately. [2] After the war, the Government Railways became increasingly centralized, absorbing the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific railways before being renamed Canadian National and finally absorbing the Grand Trunk Railway in January 1923. [3] [4] The Canadian National Police Service was first established on April 1 of that year, as the Department of Investigation. [5]
As the responsibilities of the Canadian National Railway expanded, so too did the responsibilities of its police service. Up until the late 20th-century, the force was responsible for the Crown corporation's airline, ferries, hotels, and the CN Tower, which was only severed from the railway in the 1990s. [3] [6]
After the railway was privatized in 1992, the police service expanded through acquisitions and amalgamations with other railway police forces: the Illinois Central and Illinois Central Gulf police forces in 1998, the Wisconsin Central Railroad police in 2001, the Bessemer and Lake Erie and Affiliated Railroads Police in 2004, and the BC Rail police in 2005.
In Canada, members are federally sworn in under section 44.1 of the Railway Safety Act granting powers as police constables and have the same powers of arrest as any police officer in Canada anywhere in Canada as 'Peace Officers' under Section 2 of the Criminal Code. Police constables are employed by Canadian National and are also considered public servants, sworn to the Crown to uphold the law and protect.
The CN Police federal oath of office primarily directs their duties 'on and along' CN infrastructure, protecting properties owned and administered by CN. CN Police have additional provincial appointments which allow them to extend provincial enforcement such as the Highway Traffic Act outside the boundaries set under the Railway Safety Act of Canada.
Under section 26.1 of the Railway Safety Act, it is an offence for any person to "enter on land on which a line work is situated". Offenders can be dealt with in multiple ways such as being compelled to Federal Court by means of a promise to appear, or being issued a ticket through the relevant provincial Contravention Act and released. Maximum penalties for contravention of the act for any offence can be up to a $10,000 fine and imprisonment in the case of a private person. A company may also face up to a $200,000 fine for contravention of this act.
In the U.S., each state in which CN operates grants police powers to CN police officers and special agents. State specific powers are also augmented by interstate authority granted by the United States Secretary of Transportation (Code 49 U.S.C. 28101), meaning officers have police powers related to the railway in all states the CN railway operates. Individual states may expand this authority within their borders. [7]
The Police Service's corporate headquarters is located in Montreal, Quebec, while its regional headquarters (serving the United States) is located in Homewood, Illinois. [8]
Canada is divided into six operational divisions: the Pacific Division, based in Surrey, British Columbia; the Mountain Division, based in Edmonton, Alberta; the Great Lakes North Division, based in Vaughan, Ontario; the Great Lakes South Division, based in Sarnia, Ontario; and the Champlain Division, based in Montreal, Quebec. [8]
In the United States, CN Police operations are divided into three divisions: the North Division, based in Lake Orion, Michigan; the Central Division, based in Harvey, Illinois; and the South Division, based in Memphis, Tennessee. [8]
In Canada, all CN police officers are trained at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario. [1]
Other private railroad police departments:
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.
Railroad police or railway police are people responsible for the protection of railroad properties, facilities, revenue, equipment, and personnel, as well as carried passengers and cargo. Railroad police may also patrol public rail transit systems.
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The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway, the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
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The Central Vermont Railway was a railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian province of Quebec.
The history of rail transport in Canada began in the early 19th century. The Canadian railway system saw several expansion "booms" throughout history, as well as a major change from broad to standard gauge which occurred in the 1870s. An initially disconnected system was gradually integrated with the American railway network, as Canadian and American railway companies built lines and bought smaller companies in each other's country. The Intercolonial Railway, a product of Canadian Confederation, was Canada's first major experiment in railway nationalization, and following Confederation, several transcontinental railways were built.
The Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway is a subsidiary railroad of Canadian National Railway (CN) operating in northern Minnesota, United States. A CN system-wide rebranding beginning in 1995 has seen the DWP logo and name largely replaced by its parent company. The DWP line is CN's connection between International Falls and Duluth, Minnesota, where the railroad connects to a short stretch of the former Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway before following the former Wisconsin Central to Chicago, Illinois.
The Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad is part of the Illinois Central Railroad (IC), which is owned by the Canadian National Railway (CN) through the Grand Trunk Corporation. Operationally, the Chicago Central & Pacific is designated as the Iowa Zone of CN's Southern Region.
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Robert Angus Bandeen was a Canadian businessman and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian National Railways.
The Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) was a North American railway located in Ontario, southwestern Quebec and northern Vermont. It connected Georgian Bay on Lake Huron with the northern end of Lake Champlain via Ottawa. It was formed in 1879 through a merger of two separate railway companies that John Rudolphus Booth had purchased, and reached its full extent in 1899 through a third company that he had created. The CAR was owned by Booth for several years after its completion until he agreed to sell it to the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) in 1904.
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The Credit Valley Railway was a railway located in Ontario, Canada from Toronto to St. Thomas. Chartered in 1871 by Ontario railway magnate George Laidlaw, it operated as an independent company until 1883 when it was leased by the Ontario and Quebec Railway, a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) operating company building a network of lines in southern Ontario.
The Memory Junction Railway Museum preserved a collection of railway memorabilia in southeastern Ontario. It closed in 2017 and its collections were auctioned in 2021. It was located in the former Grand Trunk Railway station of Brighton, Ontario, which opened in 1857 and served intercity rail passengers until the 1960s.