[2] The PFF was created in 1852, by decree of the emperor Dom Pedro II.

It was the first police agency in Brazil and was created to protect railroad cargo.

There are some proposals in the Brazilian Senate to reactivate this police agency, as it is considered important to national security.

With the considerable amount of railway lines in Brazil being privatized in 1996, the function of this agency has become even more limited, leading to their gradual disappearance.

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 brings in its article 144, paragraph 3º, a text where it mentions and it regularizes the presence of this institution: § 3º - the federal railway police, permanent agency, organized and maintained by the Union and structured in career, is intended, in the law format, to the ostensible patrolling of the federal railroads.