DENVER — The Regional Transportation District expanded it's elevator program this month, following a reduction in crime.
RTD's Transit Police Department started the program in March of last year at just three light rail stations: Colorado, Nine Mile and Southmoor.
At each of these stations, they left elevator doors open.
In June 2024, they added Sheridan, Lakewood/Wadsorth, Colfax and Jefferson County Government Center/Golden.
This month, they expanded the program to Florida and US 36/Broomfield stations.
"Several years ago what we were finding was a lot of individuals were utilizing our elevators, kind of get out of the climate and the weather conditions. And based off of that we were getting a lot of graffiti, a lot of issues, a lot of drug exposure," Chief of Police and Emergency Management Steve Martingano said. "People were leaving behind a lot of their garbage and everything else that they were staying overnight. So our cleaning crews and our facilities maintenance team were telling us that they’re seeing a lot of activity within the elevators."
With the elevator program, officials are now reporting significant decreases in calls for service.
For example, the Sheridan station has seen a 93% reduction in calls related to narcotics activity. The Lakewood/Wadsworth station has seen a 72% reduction in overall calls for service. And the Colfax station has seen a 35% reduction in calls for loitering.
Martingano said along with keeping elevator doors open when not in use, the agency made one other change.
"We also did a secondary thing where we have cameras as well as voice activation in almost all of our elevators, so we can actually see our elevators in real time. We can call into the elevator and tell somebody that’s in there that hey if you’re not using it for it’s intended purposes, that you need to leave the elevator or we’re going to contact security or police," Martingano said.
By the end of the year, RTD said it will add two more stops to this program: RidgeGate and Civic Center Plaza.
They hope to continue expanding beyond that. Officials said if they include all 79 public facing elevators, that would cost $61,350.
