For potential metro Denver public transit riders bothered by open illicit drug use and people who lack housing taking shelter on buses and trains, Regional Transportation District chief executive Debra Johnson this week suggested collective action: “There’s strength in numbers.”
“If there are more people on a transit vehicle, the average human being is less likely to act up,” Johnson said Wednesday in Denver Union Station after a gathering with public transit counterparts from around the nation.
That critical mass of riders who collectively deter crime and create a more secure transit experience looms as the ultimate solution to challenges that the RTD and other transit agencies face, especially when extreme weather hits. Big cities like London, Tokyo, and New York have it. But achieving strength in numbers elsewhere has been difficult, especially in metro Denver, where the total annual ridership on RTD buses and trains has plummeted from 106 million in 2019 to around 60 million.
This has forced an expensive and widening crackdown on misbehavior, costing at least $50 million this year, according to agency data. RTD officials say their efforts to ensure safety on buses and trains are starting to make a difference.
It’s a vexing situation that emerged as a focus this week as officials from a dozen U.S. public transit agencies gathered in Denver to discuss how to keep public transit safe and appealing. A study, funded by the Federal Transit Administration, served as the basis for this conference. It found that rising rates of illegal drug use and deteriorating safety conditions in public transit have become increasingly pressing issues for riders and staff.
“This is a problem across America…. Nobody has solved this,” said David Cooper, director of the Transit Cooperative Research Program study. At the meeting in Denver, public transit officials reached a consensus that local governments must help transit agencies ensure safety for riders, Cooper said.
“We need support when it comes to mental health, when it comes to substance abuse, when it comes to individuals who need someplace to go,” he said. “Those are things that are beyond the transit agencies. Those are things that are city, county, and state responsibilities.”
Metro Denver and four other cities (Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia) were the focus of the study. Johnson acknowledged the heavy use of RTD’s system by people who need shelter, complicating already difficult law enforcement on buses and trains. “They are in the midst of our system because they have nowhere else to go.”
RTD officials have launched 24/7 police patrols to try to address rider concerns about unwanted hassles, wafting fumes from people smoking meth and fentanyl, inflammatory rants, threats of violence, and fights.
The agency managers over the past two years have boosted their capacity for live camera surveillance, which is available on all buses and many trains. They reprogrammed elevator doors to stay open when nobody’s using the elevators in nine stations, and have targeted two more stations for this change. Elevators had become “havens” for unwanted activities, Johnson said.
RTD directors also expanded their transit police force more than fivefold, deploying more than 100 officers this year, up from 19 at the end of 2022, for patrols on buses and trains. A contract security agency provides supplemental coverage. Transit police are developing partnerships with metro Denver mental health agencies, teaming up with social workers on patrols to try to stop problems and get proper help for people lacking housing and end up taking shelter, often to escape heat and cold on streets, inside buses and trains.
RTD data shows a sharp reduction in the number of rider calls for security help between 2024 and 2025 using the smartphone app. Rider reports of illicit drug activity using the app decreased from 2,124 in 2024 to 707 this year through October, agency records show.
But drug users and vagrants are still “clogging the RTD system,” regularly disrupting transit, forcing bus drivers and train operators to make difficult decisions on whether to intervene, said Lance Longenbohn, president of their Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001. RTD and union supervisors advise drivers to notify dispatchers and activate “live-look” cameras when trouble erupts, rather than get involved.
If police patrols on buses and trains are increasing, “my folks are just not seeing it, and that is discouraging,” Longenbohn said.
RTD Police Chief Steve Martingano said current staffing allows about a dozen officers per shift patrolling on board buses and trains. “For police to be on every bus and train is not possible.”
The RTD’s annual spending for security has increased from around $26 million in 2018 to $41.8 million in 2024 and is projected to exceed $50 million this year, according to data provided to an agency director and the Greater Denver Transit advocacy group.
“RTD did something that is probably highly desired by stakeholders. The problem is it’s expensive,” GDT co-founder James Flattum said. “We need an environment where riders are treating each other with dignity to get more people on transit.”
As RTD’s chief executive and general manager, Johnson rode with transit police and mental health workers last summer, building her understanding of the challenges.
“There are some who prefer to go into our public transit system rather than a shelter. They feel it is safer,” Johnson said.
