MTA Police

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police
Abbreviation	MTA Police
Patch of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police
Logo of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police
Agency overview
Formed	1998
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction*	City of New York in the state of New York, USA
Legal jurisdiction	New York and Connecticut
General nature	Law enforcement Local civilian police
Operational structure
Police Officers	646
Director responsible	Raymond Diaz
Agency executive	Michael R. Coan, Chief
Parent agency	Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Units	List Patrol Highway Patrol Detective Division Inter-agency Counterterrorism Task Force Emergency Services Unit Canine Unit (K-9) Communications Unit Technology & System Development Right of Way Task Force Internal Affairs Bureau
Facilities
Districts	9 District # 1 - Suffolk County, New York District # 2 - Nassau County, New York District # 3 - Queens and Brooklyn counties of New York District # 4 - Penn Station District # 5 - Grand Central Terminal and 125th Street Station District # 6 - Lower Westchester County and the Bronx, New York District # 7 - Upper Westchester, Dutchess, Rockland, Putnam, and Orange Counties of New York District # 8 - Fairfield and New Haven Counties of Connecticut District # 9 - Richmond County, New York
Website
web.mta.info/mta/police/
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police, or MTA Police, is the police agency of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Officers of the MTA Police are fully empowered under the New York State Public Authorities Law and are commissioned in the state of Connecticut. Their geographic area of employment extends to all counties in New York served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, giving the MTA Police the ability to exercise full police authority within the counties of Dutchess, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, and the city of New York,

The MTA Police is not responsible for the New York City Subway. The subways are patrolled by the New York City Police Department (NYPD)'s Transit Bureau.

The department was formed in 1998, with the consolidation of the Long Island Rail Road Police and the Metro-North Railroad Police Departments. Since 9/11, the department has expanded in size and has ramped up dramatically its counter-terrorism capabilities, adding canine teams and emergency services officers. There are 1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants, and 44 police officers who are assigned to the K-9 Unit and serve as handlers with their canine partners. The department now has one of the best trained K-9 units in the United States. At a national competition in 2013, two MTA Police dogs took third and fourth place in explosives detection.

Currently, training for new recruits is conducted at the New York City Police Academy. After successfully completing the academy curriculum; officers are further trained in Connecticut law and law enforcement procedures.

On June 1, 2005, the MTA Staten Island Railway Police Department, with 25 officers, was merged with the MTA Police. The MTA Staten Island Railway Police Department was responsible for policing the Staten Island Rapid Transit System (SIRT) in the Staten Island borough of New York City. This was the final step in consolidating MTA agency law enforcement, and increased the total workforce of the department to 716, including civilians.