Ever since the proliferation of cameras, either security cameras or cell phone cameras, the world of policing has changed quite dramatically. Now that everyone is watching everyone else, the number of stories about police acting outside the law, being abusive, and generally being unpleasant has absolutely exploded.
As much as the police are maligned in the media these days, and in many cases rightly so, the fact remains that someone does need to uphold law and order somehow. Is there a better way to do it? Some organizations seem to think so and have gone out of their way to make their own police forces.
10. Post Police Are Sworn, Federal Officers With Full Powers of Arrest
Postal police officers are some of the oldest law enforcement officers in the world. In fact, the UK’s Post Office Investigation Branch is the oldest police force in the world and dates back over 300 years. That’s a long time to be investigating mail crimes.
The United States has its own Postal Police that are fully empowered agents of the law. They can 100% arrest you for crimes if they fall under the purview of the United States Postal Investigation Service. There are over 450 armed officers and they can investigate up to 200 different crimes that can be committed in a way that relates to the mail. Who knew?
In 2022, Postal Police seized nearly four tons of meth, three tons of cocaine, and one and a half tons of fentanyl. They also conducted thousands of arrests for numerous crimes.
9 The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Police Force is Owned by CP Rail in Canada
The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Police sounds like a word jumble at best, but it’s not. Railway police have existed about as long as railways have. But the CPKC is a bit of an odd duck even by those terms as we’re talking about a Canadian owned police force working in America that has full police authority. If the CPKC arrests you, you’re going to jail.
The police cover the rail network across both Canada and the US, making them unique in that way also since they operate internationally.
Canadian officers are appointed by a judge and their role is to uphold laws relating to anything owned or operated by railroads or within about 500 yards of those properties.
In the US, officers are fully commissioned by the state in which they operate but have federal interstate authority.
Canadian Pacific merged with Kansas City Southern as a business venture for the railroad but the law enforcement aspect was overlooked by a lot of people. The question of having a law enforcement agency owned by a private company in another country has come up, however.
8. NYC Sanitation Has its Own Police Force
New York City’s Sanitation Department has to deal with so many crimes it has its own police force as well. And not just a police force, but 305 undercover officers so you don’t see them coming when they bust you for things like dumping trash or stealing recyclables, which is one of the crimes they have to deal with.
Sanitation officers typically issue citations for things like walking dogs without a leash or having a dirty sidewalk outside of your business. That said, they are also armed and can deal with far more serious crimes when necessary. According to one officer, the thing they deal with the most is public urination.
In 2018 alone, Sanitation Police issued nearly half a million tickets for various infractions.
7. Pretty Much Every College Has its Own Armed Police Force
Something you may not be aware of, or perhaps have never paid much attention to, is the fact that pretty much every college campus has its own private police force that is meant to maintain law and order. For many, campus police are a bit of a joke, but they can get serious at times.
Over 100 campuses in the US have struck deals with the US Department of Defense. That means a college police force can have access to things like grenade launchers or M-16s. They are not municipal cops even though they may work inside a city as they are employed directly by the college itself. That means the rules they uphold are necessarily the laws as you know them, they’re the rules set down by college administration.
The first college police force dates back to 1894 at Yale. By the time the 1960s rolled around, college cops were able to carry guns on campus. Most of these police forces came about after colleges lobbied to have the right to create them in the wake of Vietnam War protests. Many of those protests took place on college campuses, and the schools wanted a way to protect themselves from the protesters, rather than to keep the students on campus safe.
Things get a little dicey with campus police when you find out that some of them have jurisdiction outside of campuses. In some cases, college police can perform things like traffic stops outside of the limits of the college campus. In 2015, a college police officer was charged with murder after shooting a man during a traffic stop. The victim, Samuel DeBose, was not on campus and was not a student.
6. The US Supreme Court Has the Supreme Court Police Force
If you wanted to go see the Supreme Court in the United States, you could schedule a visit. Like most government buildings, visitors can go on a tour and learn about its history. While you’re there, you might also notice that the Supreme Court has its own police force that provides security for the building, appropriately called the Supreme Court police force.
The purpose of the Supreme Court police is to protect the court, the grounds, and employees and visitors who are on the property. They also offer protection for dignitaries, including Supreme Court Justices both domestically and internationally. That means if Supreme Court judges are required to go somewhere, Supreme Court police can go with them to provide security. It’s not quite the same as the Secret Service following the President around, but it’s in the ballpark.
In 2024 the Supreme Court was looking to boost the Supreme Court police budget by over $19 million. This was due to the perceived need for Supreme Court judges to have increased security, including at their private residences.
This might make you conclude that the judges don’t have security currently, which isn’t true. The US Marshal Service actually provides security for the Supreme Court judges’ homes but the court wanted to change that. They wanted their own police force to take over the duties because of “evolving concerns.”
5. The British Antarctic Territory Has Laws and Police But No Permanent Residents
The British Antarctic territory, as the name suggests, is a chunk of land in the Antarctic that is overseen by the British government. No one lives there. There’s no actual government there, there are just research facilities, a historical base, and a boat. And there’s a police force. You can read their various ordinances related to crime and policing on their website but be forewarned. No matter how boring you think it might be, it’s actually worse.
Despite having permanent residence, there are a couple dozen ordinances that only cover the territory and any laws not covered by them are by default covered by normal British law. If you were to commit a crime in the British Antarctic territory, you would have to be extradited so that anything could be done about it.
4. The Wealthy Can Create Their Own Private Police Forces
If you’re going to be filthy rich, then you might as well make the most of it like a proper 1980s movie villain. Hire your own private police force so you can flaunt the law however you like. It may sound ridiculous, but it’s something that wealthy people actually do.
In the French Quarter of New Orleans, when a millionaire reality TV star was robbed and couldn’t get the mayor to return his phone calls, he decided to create his own police force. Operating as a neighborhood watch, which has been accused of essentially being a vigilante group, it’s made up of off-duty police officers who were getting paid a premium wage for moonlighting as private police.
People in the neighborhood could use an app to report crimes to the private force rather than the actual police force. The French Quarter Task Force, as it was called, was initially funded by the millionaire Creator but was then Handled by a voluntary occupancy tax paid for by locals amounted to about $1.2 million a year.
Miami has an exclusive Island for billionaires that has its own 13-person police force to protect residents. Like the French Quarter Task Force, this private police force isn’t subject to the Constitution the same way actual police forces are. There’s very little accountability and no way to know what they’re up to if they don’t really want to tell you.
3. Amtrak Operates a Police Force
We already saw that the railroads have police forces in the US and Canada but that force is concerned only with freight trains. When it comes to passenger trains, meaning Amtrak in the US, you’re in a whole new realm. For that reason, Amtrak operates its own police force.
Like the CPKC police, their job is to deal with any crimes that happen on or around Amtrak trains and facilities. A lot of that deals with trespassing which can end up being fatal. There are over 500 Amtrak officers throughout the United States
2. Dams in the US Have Their Own Special Forces Teams
In any given year about seven million people are going to go visit the Hoover Dam. Never underestimate the drawing power of concrete holding back water. But with so many people going to the Hoover Dam every year, and the fact that it is an important location, it needs to be secure.
The Bureau of Reclamation, which you may have never heard of before, has its own security response Force to protect the dam. The Bureau of Reclamation oversees wholesale water and hydroelectric power in the United States. The Security Response Force is your water and/or power’s first and last line of defense.
Located at all major dams, not just Hoover, the SRF protects sites, employees, and assets, as well as visitors.
1. NASA Has a SWAT Team
NASA has a SWAT team. Just take a moment to appreciate what kind of badass movie you could make based on that sentence with no other information or context needed. Just dudes in body armor with sniper rifles taking out space criminals or some such. The possibilities are endless.
The reality is maybe a little less awesome, but still interesting. Known as the Emergency Response Team or ERT, the job of this special unit is to deal with any serious threats that occur at Kennedy Space Center, which covers 44,000 acres.
The 29-member team is in addition to regular security and they are trained to deal with higher level threats like terrorism or active shooters. Yes, they have snipers. Like any SWAT team, they need to maintain standards year-round and are constantly training. In 2019, NASA’s SWAT team competed against other SWATs from around the country and placed 10th out of 55.