Railway detectives in the United Kingdom

For their history after 1947, see British Transport Police#History.

Detectives and police may have been employed by private railway companies in the United Kingdom almost right from the start of passenger services in the 1820s, with the first definitive reference dating to 1838.

Policeman versus constable

The first railway employees described as "police" can be traced back to 30 June 1826. A regulation of the Stockton and Darlington Railway refers to the police establishment of "One Superintendent, four officers and numerous gate-keepers". This is the first mention of railway police anywhere and was three years before the Metropolitan Police Act was passed. They were not, however, described as "constables" and the description may refer to men controlling the trains rather than enforcing the law. Historical references (including those originating from the BTP itself) to when the first group of true "constables" was organised to patrol a railway should thus be treated with caution.

Some early-19th-century references to "railway police" or "policemen" do not concern constables but instead describe the men responsible for the signalling and control of the movement of trains (it is still common colloquial practice within railway staff for their modern equivalents in signal boxes and signalling centres to be called "Bobbies"). These personnel carried out their duties mostly in the open beside the track and were often dressed in a similar manner (e.g. a top hat and frock coat) to early police constables but were not directly concerned with law enforcement. Occasional references to a "Police Department" in railway staff records at the National Archives relate to signalmen and others, although some of them were simultaneously county constables.

1838

Specific reference to "constables" rather than mere "policemen" is made by the BTP website article "A History of Policing the Railway" which states "The London, Birmingham and Liverpool Railway Companion of 1838 reports 'Each Constable, besides being in the employ of the company, is sworn as a County Constable.'" The resulting railway company forces were formed by powers available under common law to parishes, landowners and other bodies to appoint constables to patrol land and/or property under their control, distinct from the establishment of a police force by statute, as applicable to the Metropolitan Police in 1829.

A huge workforce was required to build the ever-expanding railway system. These armies of rough workers – navigators, or "navvies" for short – brought fear into rural Victorian England. The Special Constables Act 1838 was passed, which required railway and other companies to bear the cost of constables keeping the peace near construction works. The BTP history page states that "according to J. R. Whitbread in The Railway Policeman' [this Act](Harrap, 1961) was the first legislation to provide for any form of policing of the railway whilst under construction, i.e. to protect the public from the navvies more or less". That year also saw the Royal Mail conveyed by rail for the first time - the first rail mail thefts were reported shortly afterwards.

1845-1900

Memorial at Postman's Park to Inspector Frederick Croft, a railway police officer who lost his life saving a woman's life at Woolwich Arsenal station in 1878.

The continually expanding network of railways gave criminals new opportunities to move around the country and commit crime. The railways were pioneers of the electric telegraph and its use often involved the arrest of criminals arriving or departing by train. On 1 January 1845 a railway police sergeant became the first person to arrest a murderer following the use of an electric telegraph.

In 1848 the Eastern Counties Railway lost 76 pieces of luggage in just one day, and by the following year thefts from the largest six railways amounted to over £100,000 a year. The first railway murder was committed by Franz Muller, who robbed and killed a fellow passenger on a North London Railway train in 1864; however, railway police were not involved in his apprehension. The first arrest abroad by the British police was made in 1874 when a Metropolitan Police inspector accompanied by a railway police inspector went to the United States to arrest an embezzler.

1900-1945

From 1900, several railway companies re-organised their police forces. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway virtually reformed their police force from scratch in that year, followed by the Great Eastern Railway, the North Eastern Railway and Midland Railway in 1910, the Caledonian Railway in 1917 and lastly the Great Western Railway in 1918. The Railways Act 1921 amalgamated over one hundred separate railway systems (of which about 20 had organised police forces) into four groups:

• The Great Western Railway
• The London and North Eastern Railway
• The London, Midland and Scottish Railway
• The Southern Railway

Each had its own police force controlled by a chief of police. These four forces were organised in the same way; each split into a number of divisions headed by a superintendent, divided into a number of divisions posts led by an inspector. Detectives worked with their uniformed colleagues at most locations. Many 'non-police' duties were retained, however, with officers acting as crossing keepers or locking and sealing wagons. During the Second World War, the strength of the railway police doubled. With many men conscripted, special constables and women police were again employed. With nationalisation, these were ultimately subsumed into the British Transport Commission Police.