As crime in Denver soars, RTD finds itself in the frontlines

The Lakewood Police Department described a disturbing scene that unfolded on Feb. 13 at a Regional Transportation District light rail station.

Two teenage girls allegedly assaulted a man at the Wadsworth Boulevard light rail station, the police said. The teens seemingly attacked the man at random, holding him down, kicking him and calling him racial slurs, the police added. 

The incident was one of several crimes that occurred in metro Denver's public transportation system in the last several months. Other incidents garnered considerable media attention not only because of their deadly results, but also because of how brazen they had been.   

• A 13-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed 60-year-old Richard Sanchez on an RTD bus on Jan. 27 over a verbal dispute about Sanchez's leg being in the middle of the aisle. The boy now faces 14 charges, including first-degree murder and endangering public transportation.

• Vinchenzo Moscoso, 29, allegedly stabbed a man to death on an RTD bus at West 32nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard on Sept. 14, before stabbing another woman to death on a street near Regis University. Moscoso also allegedly started stabbing a male victim in the back of the bus in the neck "immediately, without provocation or warning," according to an arrest affidavit.

• A man was stabbed and severely injured at the light rail station on Perry Street on Feb. 6. He survived.  

In response, the Regional Transportation District has increased the number of POST-certified officers in its transit police department. The regional agency said it is also deploying new strategies aimed at rider safety.

But the department doesn't believe it can lower the crime rates on its own. The way the agency put it, the crimes that are happening are a microcosm of a larger, societal challenge that is seeping its way into RTD buses, trains and stations. 

“We go through every corner of this metro area, which means we encounter any problem that's locally happening," said Stuart Summers, chief communications and engagement officer for RTD. "We're not trying to push off the responsibility onto somebody else, but we need partners to work with us, other jurisdictions and municipalities and nonprofits and outreach groups because this is something that is facing society as a whole, not just RTD.”

"We can't solve this alone," he said. 

The transit police

Ron Short, a former RTD bus driver for 24 years, said crime has increased drastically over his time in the industry, leading up to his job switch in 2023 to an officer at the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001, the union that represents RTD bus and train operators.

Short said he saw an increase in both violent crimes and drug use, compounding into serious worries for operators and passengers. 

Consider this: RTD fielded 13,938 calls for service in 2023, both via phone and its Transit Watch application. The agency saw 12,064 in 2022.

These 2023 numbers includes 20 calls for weapon offenses, 146 for threats, 11 for menacing and 82 for assault.

Already, the department has received 1,094 calls for service in January of this year —  on pace for more than 13,000 by year's end.

RTD employs its own sworn police officers, who seek to provide protection and services to both riders and drivers in the 40-plus municipalities where the transit agency offers transportation services — including Denver, Boulder and Aurora.

These officers have gone through the police academy and are POST certified, according to Summers. They can make arrests, though the department does not have a jail and relies on the help from local departments to detain suspects.

The agency, which was made up of 19 sworn officers in August 2022, had grown to 56 sworn officers as of March. 

RTD plans to reach 119 staff officers by the end of 2024, with 21 currently in police academy training, according to a Friday news release from the department. 

Deputy Chief Dr. Glynell Horn Jr. said the increase in staff will make a huge difference in RTD's work.

“For years, RTD was in a state where they depended on extra duty employment, whether it was Denver PD or Lakewood. We were very dependent on the schedules of other departments," he said.

But while the increase in resources is significant, Short and other RTD officials believe it is still not enough.

“RTD is trying to build up their security staff, but they will never be able to build a staff to cover the entire transit system," Short said. "You would expect different police municipalities, that RTD is serving, to try and work hand-in-hand to offer the response that our operators need.”

"We can’t be on every train that RTD owns or operates. It’s totally impossible. However, we do plan to be present on a lot more modes of transportation," Horn Jr. said of the future efforts with added officers. "As we continue to grow our police department, we will also become more credible in the eyes of our law enforcement partners, as well."

RTD reflects metro Denver 

Both officials and Short said the increase in crime is not RTD-centric — they're not happening in isolation.  

Crime statistics appears to support that assertion.

For example, Denver police saw 77,976 crime incidents in 2022, an increase from the 72,578 in 2021, according to the Denver Police Department's open data catalog. 

The city experienced 57,229 crimes in 2019, prior to the pandemic. 

With RTD taking up a significant amount of space in the region, it's not surprising that public transportation, too, has seen a drastic hike in incidents, according to Summers. 

“You have to realize that our buses and trains traverse every corner of this 3,000-plus-square-mile metro area,” he said, emphasizing that the metro area includes more than three million people and RTD serves more than 65 million passengers a year.

Insofar as the increase in calls for service, Summers noted both the increase in ridership and more awareness. 

According to the department's ridership reports, RTD saw 61,602,568 boardings in 2022. The number increased to 65,021,500 in 2023.

The Transit Watch application, which allows citizens to report crimes and incidents directly to the RTD police department, was also pushed in 2023, according to Summers, potentially increasing the calls for service.

Horn Jr. described the increase in calls as a positive development.

“Previously, just because people weren’t calling in, that doesn’t mean things weren’t occurring," he said. "The current state of crime hasn’t changed overnight, so there are issues that have been going on. Things were overly underreported."

Crime 'without consequence'

Horn Jr. and RTD Police Commander Broderick Fowler attribute the increasing instances of criminal behavior on public transit to the lack of legislation and consequence for people who commit crimes.

“Sometimes, the limitations that law enforcement agencies have, as a whole, create trouble in terms of jailing people,” Horn Jr. said. “When you have behavior that people feel they commit without consequence, what’s the deterrent in committing said crime again?”

“There’s numerous times I’ve talked to operators who have been assaulted," Fowler said. "In their eyes, we’re not doing enough, but we’re doing the maximum that we can do. A certain level of these assaults are not jailable offenses.” 

Transit officials said they are focused on limiting crimes on vehicles and at stations.

For example, RTD is launching a new pilot program involving the elevators at larger stations. More specifically, the elevators are "open" as a default.

RTD said the elevator doors at Nine Mile, Colorado and Southmoor stations will "remain open until a destination floor is selected, close before the elevator is in motion, and remain open at all other times.”

“Every month, RTD receives hundreds of calls for service and customer complaints related to unwanted and illegal activities taking place inside our elevators,” said Dr. Joel Fitzgerald Sr., Chief of Police and Emergency Management. “These activities not only impede customer access to RTD’s services but also obstruct our efforts to create a welcoming transit environment. Setting elevators to a default open status dissuades usage to anything other than what is intended.”

These efforts are part of the department's “crime prevention through environmental design,” Summers said.

The idea of deploying "environmental design" strategies to prevent crime is not new to Denver. For example, property owners and organizations can invite a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design-certified police officer to survey their property — such as a business, home or neighborhood — and make recommendations about how they can prevent crime through CPTED-approved environmental design.

That could be adding security cameras, installing better lighting, putting up a fence or changing the landscaping.

In the case of RTD, these designs include things like increased lighting in darker areas. 

Horn Jr. said he has already received emails from passengers saying that the open elevator doors have decreased drug use at the stations.

He also pointed toward adding lights and cameras to darker sections of stations, helping disperse gatherings that do not involve actually using the transportation systems.

But, he added, eliminating crime requires corresponding cities and nearby businesses to employ similar tactics, so individuals aren't just moving from one place to another.

The agency also introduced new safety plexiglass dividers that can withstand blunt force objects as a way of protecting the drivers on all busses earlier this year.

A strategic approach

Officials said they want to approach fighting crime strategically.

For example, they said, law enforcement personnel should be deployed proactively, driven by data glimpsed from, among other places, the Transit Watch app.

Ultimately, officials said, a vigilant public is among the best antidotes to crime.  

“We want customers to see something, say something. The only way the system will get safer and be able to be utilized by all of us for what it was meant to be is we all have to work together," Summers said.

Summers noted that only 300 of the nearly 9,500 stops RTD services are owned and managed by the agency. 

Whenever a person calls RTD or the police, the closest officers are dispatched, regardless of department, something Horn Jr. highlights as crucial for citizens to recognize. 

Horn Jr. and Fowler urged those who witness or experience a crime on RTD services to report directly to the transit police through the app or their emergency dispatch number — 303-299-2911.

If callers called 911 or police departments, local officers may experience difficulty dispatching correctly due to movement through jurisdictions.

“Look at the W Line. If you get to Sheridan Station and you call to report something, you’re currently in Denver. But, one more stop over to Lamar and Wadsworth, you’re in Lakewood," Fowler said. "In two minutes, you’ve changed jurisdiction. If you call us, we know where the train is going and its schedule and can coordinate a response.”

To Short, however, crimes occurring on RTD offer a larger commentary of life in Colorado's most populous region. To him, the increase in crime broadly corresponds to a decrease in respect for operators and transit systems.

“There was a lot of respect out there for operators and the system before. Now, people just use the transit system as a conduit for whatever they want," he said.

He added that transit systems and governments need to work on increasing awareness and respect for operators. He said he has heard of drivers unwilling to share their experiences or troubles because they don't believe anyone would listen.

"We’re an intricate part of the community. If we don’t come to work, the city stops. That importance needs to be put out there,” he said. 

Ultimately, he said, actual officers at stations and stops will do the job.

“RTD police need to be out there being vigilant and being seen. I know they changed the elevator doors,” Short said. “I’m not going to knock anything improving safety and security, but, at the end of the day, presence is what’s going to make a difference.”