May 2011 - Amtrak

14 | May 2011 Amtrak Ink
Whether it’s locating a missing
family member or tracking down a
fleeing crime suspect, if a case
involves train travel in
Southern California,
Detective Jay
Christopher Glass is
usually the one who gets
the call.
Glass’s skill in
helping solve such cases
has earned him the
honor of being named
the Amtrak Police
Department’s 2010
Officer of the Year.
“Amtrak and local
police officers, as well as
many others, rely on
Detective Glass’s ability
to gather intelligence
using reservations
records and other
sources,” says Vice President and Chief of
Police John J. O’Connor.
Glass, who is based in Riverside, Calif.,
joined the company in 1993.
Amtrak Officers Assist in
Wake of Tornadoes
Among his recent efforts, Glass last
year fielded a call from a distraught man
who said he was trying to locate his missing
wife. But the more the
man talked, Glass says,
the more he realized
something was off.
“I’ve been doing this
a long time, and his
story just wasn’t adding
up,” says Glass.
When Glass called
the agency with which
the caller said he had
filed the missingperson’s
report, he
discovered the man’s
wife had left him
recently, that he had quit
his job as a police officer
the day before and that
he had recently made
threats of suicide.
Knowing the man was headed to the
Los Angeles station, Glass obtained and
emailed a photo and description of the
caller, determined the wife was safe at a far
Detective Jay Christopher Glass
away location and then started making the
two-hour drive to Los Angeles. Shortly
before Glass arrived, a security guard
spotted the man and he was taken into
custody by police.
Not all calls require such an extensive
response. But they run the gamut of problems
that get called in.
“I handle a lot of the bomb threats,
people who have lost family members, disputes
between employees,” he says. “I also
work with employees on safety issues.”
Last year, Glass became certified as a
driver for the Mobile Command Center,
which is used to provide support at major
incidents, as well as at festivals and events.
Many of the calls he handles come from
local police departments checking to see if
a suspect has booked a train reservation,
either under a real name or an alias.
Last September, for example, Glass
helped the Bakersfield Police Department
track down a suspect in a double-homicide
case. After finding a matching reservation,
Glass contacted the train crew and police
were able to make an arrest. ■
Nine officers in the Amtrak Police Department spent several weeks in the small
town of Hackleburg, Ala., this month assisting with clean up and recovery efforts
after severe storms demolished
many parts of the state, causing
more than 300 fatalities.
The Amtrak Police Department
sent its Mobile Command Center to the small town at the request of the local
police chief and in coordination with the Marion County Emergency Management
Agency to operate as a 24-hour crisis operation center. Most structures in
Hackleburg, which has a population of roughly 1,500, were
flattened when tornadoes swept through the area.