Transit Police using sector-based plan for its work

RTD’s service district of 2,342 square miles is huge, encompassing 40 municipalities in all or part of eight counties. Any employee, customer or community member can appreciate that being a lot of ground to cover.

To truly understand the size of this area, try policing it. For many years, Deputy Chief Steve Martingano said, RTD’s small number of Transit Police officers responded from call to call across the region, often traveling from one far-flung location to another. It wasn’t unusual for one officer, in a single shift, to check a Park-n-Ride in Evergreen, drive to Nine Mile Station in Aurora and then return to Denver, amassing high vehicle mileage and accomplishing a small handful of tasks.

To bring more efficiency to their work, Transit Police began assigning personnel to areas with the highest needs, often along bus routes or rail lines. Allied Security officers and police officers on secondary contracts – from Aurora, Denver, Lakewood and Thornton – were directed to focus on hot spots in downtown Denver and, potentially, in outlying communities. Decisions about how to deploy resources took into account high volumes of information emailed to Transit Police leaders and details forwarded from Customer Care agents, which might not have been addressed for a few days due to lag time.

As the Denver metro region’s population swells, the growing Transit Police Department has changed its approach to operating the complex security model for RTD’s system. RTD-PD is now using a sector-based plan that divides the district into five geographic regions, with a commander overseeing each carrying responsibility for all police-related incidents, community events, and law enforcement intelligence sharing and partnerships with other agencies. This policing method is progressive, data-driven and assigns staff ownership of each area, Deputy Chief Glyn Horn said.

Sector-based policing also provides employees and external stakeholders with an easy ability to determine whom to contact with a question or an issue, Horn said. Visitors to the Transit Police webpage can click on the Sector Map to enter an address for an RTD bus stop, facility, address or place. From there, a photo appears of the commander assigned to that sector, with the option to contact that individual by completing a form. The information entered is sent immediately – not just to that commander, but also to Horn and Dr. Joel Fitzgerald Sr., Chief of Police and Emergency Management. Additionally, the map offers contact details for the Board Director representing that district.

“This is a way of streamlining the communication and, most importantly, making sure that the proper people are receiving that information in a timely manner,” Horn said. “It's a way that enables us to really bring home this one RTD model and work together.”

While RTD-PD has been working in earnest to share information about the sector-based approach and how to communicate with commanders, employees across the agency and the public are not fully aware of it, the deputy chiefs noted. Police are discussing the new plan with staff during the de-escalation training underway in Bus Operations, and the information is being received well, Martingano said. Operators “have been hearing about the growth, they've been seeing our interactions out there, how we've been responsive, how we've been going to these locations, getting out of our cars.”

Introducing the sector maps has yielded an immediate reaction among employees, Martingano added. “When these operators found out they have a direct contact that they weren’t aware of before, now they know who they're going to talk to about things,” he said. “Internally, it's been huge for us to get the word out about who they should be going to for issues that they're seeing.”

Added Horn: “Once you start sending something, say, that always goes to Commander Fowler, now you get to form a relationship, because now you meet the man or woman over a particular area. So now you can have those one-on-one conversations and form strong relationships, which is a fundamental building block in gaining trust.”

Taking a sector- or district-based approach to policing is not a new concept to agencies and groups outside RTD, Horn said. Denver Police Department is split into districts, for example. “We just need to do a better job and a constant job at advising our customers in the community that this (the sector map) is an avenue they can use,” he said.

RTD-PD hosts and attends open houses that enable the public to speak directly with command staff assigned to that sector about issues affecting each area. Most people don’t want to know what’s going on throughout the entire district – they are concerned only about the locations and issues that are part of their lives.

“We want our customers to know where they live and who's in charge of their area, especially if they're utilizing public transportation or if they have a bus stop near their house and it's causing an issue,” Martingano said. Using the sector map to send information directly to Transit Police also shifts responsibility for a response away from Customer Care, alleviating any delay in communication.

While RTD-PD has used the sector concept in some form for about four years, including for field training for new officers, accountability for specific areas was not introduced until recently, when Horn and six commanders were hired. Officers will be placed intentionally within sectors as the department continues to grow. Staffing levels per area will vary depending upon density and other factors, with data continuing to drive such decisions. The busiest parts of the system are sectors 5 (downtown Denver) and 4 (which includes Aurora and several communities on the southern end of the region).

Horn said RTD-PD is working hard to build relationships with every law enforcement agency in which it shares jurisdiction. These meetings are important for multiple reasons, including to outline the department’s plan for growth, to ask for help where needed, and to affirm that RTD-PD will respond and follow up however it can. Partnerships and collaborations are essential for the success of any law enforcement agency.

Another reason these reciprocal relationships are important: RTD-PD is doing a good job hiring lateral officers from other agencies, many from jurisdictions within RTD’s service district. A huge benefit to Transit Police is being able to place officers in sectors – and, by extension, communities – they are already familiar with, Horn said.

“I tell the commanders we are not a service in the community – we are part of the community,” Horn said. A geographic approach to staffing allows for proactive policing, with officers visible on vehicles, on rail platforms and at bus stops, and forming relationships with regular customers.

“Finding out the problems, knowing the bus operators’ names were some of the things we tried to do back in the day with the limited resources we had,” Martingano said, acknowledging that was hard to do. “The bigger we get now, there should be no question of somebody knowing who a bus operator is at 7 o'clock every morning at a certain stop.

“And as we grow, the more you see us, the more people are going to know who we are.”