MBTA Police or local police

Hi, on Saturday night there was an incident on the train we were on that resulted in the Beverly Police coming and removing a passenger. What determines if the MBTA police are called or local police? And, I assume local police have full jurisdiction on MBTA trains?

I've never seen TPD respond to anything on the commuter rail outside of Boston. I would assume this is because at the far fringes of the CR system the nearest TPD officer could be an hour away.

I've seen local police do everything from assist with a medical emergency, to remove unruly passengers, to flag crossings.

Both T and local police are called, but outside of Boston and adjoining suburbs the locals
respond first. In the case of a major incident such as a fatality or accident, Transit PD
do come out. Sometimes local PD will request Transit to take over or assist stuff like
crossing malfunctions.

D

How do local police handle incidents which invoke the MBTA photography policy at outlying rail stations?

diburning wrote:How do local police handle incidents which invoke the MBTA photography policy at outlying rail stations?

What sorts of "incidents"? Unless a photographer is tampering with a signal box and taking pictures of its innards, what sort of incident are you envisioning?

A friend was recently chased off the platform at Anderson RTC by a power tripping security guard there. Had the security guard called the local police, would they handle the situation in accordance with the MBTA's photography policy (where they would ID him and make sure he's not going into any non-public areas or using any equipment that would impede the flow of passengers), or would they simply throw him out under threat of arrest?

The T photography policy does not require you to produce ID if you are taking photos for personal use.

But unless your friend had the courage to stand up to power-tripping "authority" -- admittedly much easier said than done, and I'm guessing not, since he was intimidated by a security guard with likely zero arrest power -- the likely end result would have been him being "forced" to delete his photos under a spurious threat of arrest.

federal court has determined that no police officer has authority for you to be ordered to delete pictures.

DutchRailnut wrote:federal court has determined that no police officer has authority for you to be ordered to delete pictures.

And if all cops obeyed the law, there wouldn't be web sites like Photography Is Not A Crime.

But we are quickly getting off-topic here.

I don't know the answer to the original question, about who would respond to a private guard's call about super suspicious photography around super-secret train tracks.

saulblum wrote:The T photography policy does not require you to produce ID if you are taking photos for personal use.

But unless your friend had the courage to stand up to power-tripping "authority" -- admittedly much easier said than done, and I'm guessing not, since he was intimidated by a security guard with likely zero arrest power -- the likely end result would have been him being "forced" to delete his photos under a spurious threat of arrest.

He would, but the security guard didn't start speaking to him until he was leaving. He was already done for the night and was on his way out anyway, so he just left.

your friend has every right to be on MBTA property, as stated earlier, as long as he is not trespassing, or doing anything to interfere with RR operations, etc. He/she has a right to take pictures from/on public property. Next time a "rent a cop" gives you, or anyone a hard time, notify them to contact the Transit PD immediately, and get the official answer....which I can tell you, will be, that pictures are legal

The incident referenced above took place at Anderson. It gets a little fuzzy there, while it's MBTA property, it's controlled by Massport. Massport rules come in play there. I do agree the security guard did seem overly aggressive in this case though.

And to get back on topic. Can anyone my find my incident with the Winchester PD mentioned on here? It was in the Herald. Basically I had an incident on a train, called for help. The Winchester PD arrived and refused to help, and told us to wait for the Transit PD. It was a VERY bad and LONG delay!

sery2831 wrote:... Can anyone my find my incident with the Winchester PD mentioned on here? It was in the Herald. Basically I had an incident on a train, called for help. The Winchester PD arrived and refused to help, and told us to wait for the Transit PD. It was a VERY bad and LONG delay!

Was there any follow-up? Apologies to you and your passengers? If that town doesn't want trains stopping there, I'm sure that can be arranged.

The Police Chief personally called me and apologized. Also promised to never allow a situation like that happen ever again. And the handful of times I have had to call them after the incident, they have been quick and helpful.