I was in Mumbai, India. It is extremely crowded. The drive over to the old British colonial Victoria Station was like being inside a pinball game and our cab was the ball. I constantly thought we were about to run into other cars or a least one of the hundreds of overloaded motorbikes that kept cutting in front of us everytime we gave up two inches of space in front of the bumper. All this going on with a disfunctional symphony of car, bus and motorbike horns blaring angerily. The disturbing part was that they were all the note of Bb.
There was such vitality but such abject poverity. There are masses of people who existense is so painfully devoid as to make our poor in the U.S. by comparison seem rich. We are shielded from real proverity by the lack of it. There are those who would vietmatly disagree with me. I would not want to be American poor or Indian poor but, I would choose not to suffer in India.
This not how I expected to start this exploration of India's Railway Police but, it is a necessary, if inexplicable background. It is everywhere but more so around the railroads which is not where those who can aford it live.
I found the police station just outside the main entrance to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formally Victoria Station). The station was built by the British in 1878 and now UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Despite the heavily armed multitude of police at the entrance it was surprizingly easy to gain entry. I guess I didn't seem much of a threat even through I told someone a couple of days earlier in Cochin that I was going to kill them. They looked up lazily from their video monitors and waved me through. From my point of view, that was some extremely convienent profiling. I didn't look like a bomb whelding terrorist as much as more like a meandering tourist.
I talked to one officer who was curious as to why I was wondering around in the police halls. He led me to the station supervisor who offered me a seat in his office and brought in two other officers to ask, "What can we do for you?" I explained tha I was a retired Union Pacific Railroad Police Captain and they suddenly sat and stood up a little staighter. I think they were more impressed by the title more than anything else.
Before going to Mumbai I learned, mostly from Wikapedia, that the current "Railway Protection Force" draws its roots from 1854 when the railway employed its own police because of a lack of jurisdiction by government agencies. They contionued on as a police force until the government enacted legislation that gave clear poice powers to the agency. It was formed in its current state of 175,000 officers under Railroad Protection Act in 1957 as a federal law enforcement agency. Not as big as China but, pretty damn big.
They offered my a chair and some tea and we set about the normal "cop talk." They thought all Americans caried guns all the time. Guns are illegal in India and the railway police don't normally in their everyday duties carry a weapon. I told then we carried all the time at work because we never knew who was armed and who wasn't. They have terrorist alerts and high-risk arrests in which they go heavily armed, including automatic weapons. They qualify once a year.
They have major thefts and burglaries, a few drugs and assaults but, realively few. Their busiest problem is the skill and proficiency of the large number of professional pickpockets. If you see and feel the number and crush of people in the terminal and platforms as well as the walkways and streets leading to the station you would understand. There are so may people, so many places to escape to and so many desparately poor, that pickpocketing is a serious income stream for many.
I gave them some UPPD shoulder patches which they were appreciative of and a couple of Uncle Pete Calendars and told then it was the 150th year of the transcontinnetal railroad. It was a good visit and nice bonding over common ground and issues. I had to let them go back to work as they were get phone calls and officers coming with information, all of which they were blowing off to talk with me. We took pictures with all of each others cellphones and I left to check out the beautifil old station.
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