Regional Transportation District Transit Police started operating from two new substations on Friday to increase their visibility on the system and shorten response times across the eight-county service area.

One substation is based at the Elati light rail facility in Englewood, positioning officers closer to southern metro stations, the agency said. The second is at the Downtown Boulder Station, focused on enhancing presence and support for riders, employees and the surrounding community.

Officers will use the substations as patrol bases seven days a week, supplementing the department’s existing districtwide coverage rather than replacing it while allowing faster response to key areas, officials said.

“The Elati substation gives us a large presence in the southern part of the district,” said Steve Martingano, chief of police and emergency management at the Regional Transportation District. “Officers can more efficiently travel to RidgeGate Station or get to Littleton Station compared with traveling to those locations from downtown Denver. The Boulder presence at the downtown bus terminal will support RTD’s customer service and enable us to have greater visibility and response in those areas.”

The two sites serve as a pilot to assess the benefits of fixed local presence over central dispatching, the agency said. Officials plan to evaluate results before pursuing additional substations, including a potential site near the W and G light rail lines.

The substations align with the department’s sector-based patrolling model, which divides the system into five geographic sectors. Each sector has a dedicated district commander who assigns officers, responds to incidents and serves as a consistent point of contact for local businesses, riders and partnering law enforcement agencies, the agency said.

The initiative builds on several years of safety enhancements. The department implemented 24/7 officer patrols in May 2024 and increased staffing from five officers a decade ago to about 105 today.

Those changes contributed to measurable declines in security issues: average security-related incident reports dropped roughly 18% in 2025, and customer reports of illicit drug activity fell 51% in January 2026 compared with January 2025, according to the agency.

Monthly security metrics are posted on RTD’s Security-Related Metrics webpage. Additional information about safety measures appears on the agency’s Safety and Security webpage.