HUNTLEY — Railroad police officers have come a long way since the days when they worked with the Pinkerton’s detectives and U.S. Marshals on the western frontier.
Justin Douglas, special agent for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway working out of the railway’s new Billings office, is more likely to use a drone or canine assist than a horse or stagecoach, but the top priority of the railway remains the same: transporting freight and maintaining equipment to keep people safe.
Douglas began his official duties in Billings on Sept. 1. He transferred to the area from Chicago when a longtime agent retired and the railway moved the regional office from Gillette, Wyoming, to Billings.
Coming to Billings feels like home for Douglas and his wife — he grew up in Moorhead, Minnesota, and she’s from Mandan, North Dakota. But the veteran BNSF employee — a former conductor and XX as well as Chicago law enforcement officer — doesn’t expect to see much of the new Billings office.
Douglas is assigned to a region that includes 17 counties and 620 track miles in Montana and eight counties and 432 track miles in Wyoming, an area that extends south to Casper.
With two other railway agents in Whitefish and Havre, Douglas concedes that a backup officer may be a long way away. He operates read more
