New York City Transit Police

The New York City Transit Police Department was a law enforcement agency in New York City that existed from 1953 (with the creation of the New York City Transit Authority) to 1995, and is currently part of the NYPD. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia authorized the hiring of special patrolmen for the New York City Subway. These patrolmen eventually became officers of the Transit Police. In 1949, the department was officially divorced from the New York City Police Department, but was eventually fully re-integrated in 1995 as the Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau, but remained part of the Police Department. Headquarters for the NYPD Transit Bureau are located at 130 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights. History Since the 1860s, the New York City Subway's predecessors operated lines running at grade level and on elevated structures. Between 1900 and October 27, 1904, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) built the first subway line in Manhattan. Both the IRT and the competing Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT, later BMT) were privately held operators who operated city-owned subway lines. They hired their own police. However, in 1932, the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND) opened; the IND lines originally had "station supervisors" employed to police them, their names having been taken from the New York City Police Department's hiring list.