Senate Approves Police for Train (NM - Richardson's Railroad)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | March 1, 2009 | Jeff Jones

[CedarDave]

The Rail Runner Express commuter train service would get a police force of its own under a bill approved Saturday by the state Senate.

The measure from Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, would authorize the Rail Runner transit districts to hire law officers who would patrol rail-line stations, parking areas and at least some of the commuter trains that roll six days a week between Belen and Santa Fe.

The certified, armed train officers would wear distinctive badges and uniforms and "have the powers of peace officers on all property, tracks, rights of way, easements, vehicles, buses, vans, railcars, locomotives and facilities owned, leased, licensed, maintained or operated by the district," according to the bill, SB 245, approved with a 28-11 vote.

Lopez told fellow senators there have been several criminal incidents involving the popular rail line, including an attack on a conductor, the theft of more than $100,000 worth of copper wire and trespassing on Rail Runner property by motorcycles and ATVs.

[CedarDave]

Be sure to see the newest Rail Runner video and comments at this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2196904/posts?page=1

[CedarDave]

PING to the NM list.

[jwparkerjr]

Reminds me of the old 60’s song, “What the World Needs Now”. In this case it's another police agency. There's too many of them now. Starts out OK, might even be cheaper than expanding existing agencies to do the job, but it's only a matter of time until they want their own SWAT teams complete with armored vehicles and masked officers serving no-knock warrants.

[CedarDave]

Your comment was echoed in the NM Senate:

But Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, and other Republicans warned the size and cost of the force would burgeon dramatically. "It's not about three people to five people," Adair said. "It's about another 50 to 70 — minimum."

[bpjam]

Wouldn’t they all have a cheaper and easier time to just hire and train some security guards??? Stopping the theft of copper wire isn’t exactly a top law enforcement priority and is a waste of law enforcement training.

[CedarDave]

They need the cops to arrest those that photograph Indian pueblos from the train:

Pueblos ask train riders to refrain from snapping pics of tribal land

[jwparkerjr]

Nothing government ever does starts out like it was proposed in the request for it and always ends up costing at least twice the price. It never fails. It grows from there. No government agency ever gets smaller, only bigger. And even if its size doesn’t increase by leaps and bounds the cost for it does.

About 30 years ago I started telling anyone who would listen that government was out of control. They all said I was just exaggerating. Everyone got really tired of hearing me say it over and over, every time I saw evidence of it.

Who’s laughing now?

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for posting the link to that article on pictures. Contained within that article is the real truth and that is the pueblos can’t figure out how to get “camera permit fees” in the same way that Taos Pueblo does. They don’t say it in those words and they couch it around “cultural sensitivity” but it is really about the dollar.