01-05-2025
New RTD Police Chief shares 2025 plans to keep services safe
The Regional Transportation District, also known as RTD, says they are seeing decreases in its calls for service. New RTD Acting Chief Steve Martingano met with CBS Colorado to share their efforts to make RTD a safe option for travel.
Martingano joined RTD in 2015 as a commander and was promoted to deputy chief in 2017. During his time at the agency, he has worked to modernize RTD's police deployment and response model by introducing sector policing.
Steve Martingano
RTD
He also pioneered the first mental health co-responder unit in transit policing, a program that was later expanded to include outreach coordinators focused on the unhoused population. These efforts led him to co-found the National Transportation Vulnerable Populations Working Group. Martingano is also a subject-matter expert for the American Public Transportation Association, also known as APTA, peer review panels focused on policing and security.
Under his leadership, RTD has implemented a four-step action plan focused on visibility, customer education, fare enforcement and technology. In March 2025, RTD announced a 50% year-over-year reduction in security-related calls for service across its service area as well as an increase in fare enforcement on the rail system. The agency also announced last week a 60% reduction in calls at Denver Union Station, following a three-year focus on the intermodal transit facility.
RTD said the drop in crime related calls comes from new technology that was implemented in 2024. This includes live cameras on transit services and officers on platforms and trains patrolling. Officers can watch the live feeds through their laptops in their vehicles.
CBS
To reinforce community safety, Martingano has been at the forefront of expanding RTD's police department from five officers three years ago to nearly 100 sworn officers today. Currently, the department has 87 officers and is budgeted to hire 150 officers.
Martingano said his biggest focus is having his officers keep developing relationships with riders and the community. If there is an incident, the officers can learn about it quicker through that trust. He hopes enforcement is the last option in any circumstances.
"Hopefully, enforcement is the last option," Martingano said. "Sometimes, it is the first. Obviously, this depends on the situation, but we are hoping that law-enforcement actions are the last ones. We are able to build that trust in that relationship and have people understand how they should be acting on our RTD."
RTD also has an app to report suspicious activity. It is their RTD Transit Watch app. This is text-based and will go directly to dispatch. They are a 24-hour a day, seven days a week service.
To ensure more safety in 2025, the agency will be utilizing AI as a pilot program to help with report writing. This system will help jot down notes from their body cam to provide quicker results. Then, officers can focus on their patrols and not just administrative work.
Martingano will be sworn in as RTD's new Chief on May 13th.
