Transit and Railroad Police
In short: today's best AI models could do about 21% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 32% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 68% of the time, stays with people.
Protect and police railroad and transit property, employees, or passengers.
4,390 people do this job in the US. $90,230 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on9 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet4 h
- Stays with people27 h
Transit and Railroad Police, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 9 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 4 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 27 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Prepare reports documenting investigation activities and results (about 4 h); Plan or implement special safety or preventive programs, such as fire or accident prevention (about 3 h); Provide training to the public or law enforcement personnel in railroad safety or security (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 32%
- 5%
- 63%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 8%. Today's estimate: 21%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 12 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0022% to 0.0018% (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0022% | 690 of 708 | 1 of 12 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.0018% | 684 of 703 | 1 of 12 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 12 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 12 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 12 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 12 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 12 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 74% of this job's working time as physical work. For 52% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 22% in a purpose-built cell, 30% in a structured facility. 0.81 of 3, the 219th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 26%
- No robot shown 22%
- In a purpose-built cell 22%
- In a structured facility 30%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 12 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor transit areas and conduct security checks to protect railroad properties, patrons, and employees.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Knightscope K5 Autonomous Security Robot (NYPD Transit pilot) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 19% | 1.7 h38 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Investigate or direct investigations of freight theft, suspicious damage or loss of passengers' valuables, or other crimes on railroad property.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 19% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.5 work days | Stays with people | |
| Plan or implement special safety or preventive programs, such as fire or accident prevention.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 19% | 1.3 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | 44%Half by Dec 2026 | |
| Patrol railroad yards, cars, stations, or other facilities to protect company property or shipments and to maintain order.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, DroneDog (Boston Dynamics Spot + PupPack) and Guardian drone-in-a-box (Asylon Robotics) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 17% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare reports documenting investigation activities and results.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 11% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Direct or coordinate the daily activities or training of security staff.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Apprehend or remove trespassers or thieves from railroad property or coordinate with law enforcement agencies in apprehensions and removals.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide training to the public or law enforcement personnel in railroad safety or security.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 96%Half by now | |
| Enforce traffic laws regarding the transit system and reprimand individuals who violate them.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Direct security activities at derailments, fires, floods, or strikes involving railroad property.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 2% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Interview neighbors, associates, or former employers of job applicants to verify personal references or to obtain work history data.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 0.6% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Examine credentials of unauthorized persons attempting to enter secured areas.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.5% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers13% now, 14% by 2028
- Security Guards14% now, 14% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives44% now, 53% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers34% now, 42% by 2028
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators69% now, 74% by 2028
- Transportation Security Screeners11% now, 11% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Transit and Railroad Police is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 21% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 32% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (31% to 32% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Transit and Railroad Police come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Prepare reports documenting investigation activities and results (99% of the task's time now); Plan or implement special safety or preventive programs, such as fire or accident prevention (44% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Provide training to the public or law enforcement personnel in railroad safety or security (96% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Transit and Railroad Police stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Monitor transit areas and conduct security checks to protect railroad properties, patrons, and employees; Investigate or direct investigations of freight theft, suspicious damage or loss of passengers' valuables, or other crimes on railroad property; and Patrol railroad yards, cars, stations, or other facilities to protect company property or shipments and to maintain order. Together such tasks are about 68% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Transit and Railroad Police?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Transit and Railroad Police?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 74% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 52% of the working time, 30% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.81 of 3. One example: DroneDog (Boston Dynamics Spot + PupPack) and Guardian drone-in-a-box for "patrol railroad yards, cars, stations, or other facilities to protect company property or shipments and to maintain order". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 12 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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