The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) has sworn in 56 police officers in the agency’s transit police department and another 21 recruits currently in police academy training. Denver RTD has a goal to have 119 officers on staff by the end of 2024. In August 2022, the agency had 19 sworn officers.
To deploy officers more strategically, Denver RTD has divided its eight-county district into five sectors. Denver RTD sector commanders were hired to address safety issues within their assigned sector and be a point of contact for municipalities and business and property owners to report problematic, non-emergency issues.
“When you call the police, you expect responsive and timely service,” said Denver RTD Deputy Chief Glyn Horn. “It’s extremely important that customers contact RTD police just like they would contact their local police department for issues that occur within their jurisdiction. It is the hope that customers and community members will get to know the officers assigned to the sectors and have the avenue to reach officers for assistance. We’re all in this together.”
Denver RTD offers a Sector Map on its Transit Police webpage for individuals to see which sector commander to contact for their location. The customer contact form will go directly to the sector commander assigned to the area and the Denver RTD chief of police and emergency management.
“If you type in an address or station name, the respective commander’s picture will populate and a customer can send a complaint or acknowledgement directly to that commander,” Horn said.
The agency has also taken steps to better protect its bus operators by installing new safety shields in its bus fleet. To date, 150 buses have the new shields installed and 140 new buses are ready with pre-installed safety shields.
Denver RTD also plans to add community outreach staff, staffing six mental health clinicians and five homeless outreach coordinators by year end to work alongside Transit Police officers. The agency says the outreach program has fostered agency relationships to increase customer access to resources in the Denver RTD service area while helping to keep service running smoothly.
