Denver RTD increases fare enforcement to over 300,000 fare checks a month
The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) has hiked up its fare enforcement efforts by over 500% since 2024 with its approximately 100 RTD Transit Police Department (RTD-PD) officers conducting 300,000 to 400,000 fare checks monthly in 2025.
About 5% of Denver RTD’s budget is comprised of fare revenue from customers. Transit police officers underwent fare enforcement training in October 2024 and the officers—along with contracted Allied security officers—are equipped with handheld scanners to conduct fare enforcement.
An in-depth review led to RTD-PD’s four-step security plan initiated in August 2024, which ramped up fare enforcement to support customers and Denver RTD employees. The agency found that 6% of customers did not purchase fare.
The agency says another benefit of the fare checks is the ability to directly interact with those using Denver RTD services.
Chief of Police and Emergency Management Steve Martingano said, “Checking people's fare puts us in contact with customers, accomplishing three of our four policing objectives.”
The four-step security plan requires maintaining a high visibility presence, supported by Denver RTD initiating 24/7 patrolling across the district in May 2024 and department growth to 120 officers anticipated by the end of the year. For comparison, the transit police department had 19 officers in 2022. As part of increased patrolling, the agency says officers are also getting out of their cars to survey stations and board Denver RTD vehicles.
When observing behavior that does not support a welcoming transit environment, Denver RTD says officers proactively educate customers by treating other customers with respect—another aspect of the transit police’s security planning.
Martingano notes the fourth step in RTD-PD’s security plan is to utilize technology.
“Using real-time security video, officers can look at any camera in our 2,345-square-mile service area,” Martingano said. “These steps have led to a huge reduction in criminal conduct, including drug-related activity, thus allowing ridership to grow.”
The agency says officers can access video feeds from their laptops in addition to Denver RTD video investigators conducting real-time video surveillance of stops and stations.
In addition, beginning in 2023, the RTD-PD established live look-in cameras with the ability to hear and view activity on a vehicle for use in emergency situations across its bus fleet. The agency’s commuter rail is already equipped with the live look-in technology and the retrofitting of light-rail vehicles with the technology is in progress.
With the combined tactics, including fare checks, security-related calls into the RTD-PD are down by about 33%, with reports of illicit drug use down anywhere between 50 to 70% a month for 2025 compared with the same months during 2024, according to Denver RTD.
The department also periodically conducts fare sweeps, which is a coordinated enforcement effort over the course of a day to ensure compliance with fare policies. The sweeps entail collaboration among transit police officers, security teams, rail and bus operations, video investigation units, police communications and support from neighboring law enforcement agencies that assist by providing additional officers. RTD-PD works with other agencies to inform them about Denver RTD operations and understand how officers are deployed throughout the system.