AURORA, Colo. — More than three months after Denver7 reported on the Regional Transportation District launching a pilot program to crack down on crime before riders even step foot on a train, they have decided to expand it.
RTD announced its elevator pilot program back in March 2024. The agency said it believed reprogramming six elevators at its Colorado, Nine Mile, Southmoor Stations would limit "unwanted and illegal activities from taking place inside of RTD's elevators." Stats at the time showed more than 350 complaints of less-than-optimal conditions at those three stations in January and February.
After seeing success in the aftermath of the pilot program implementation, RTD is expanding it to include three more stations. The Colfax, Lakewood Wadsworth, and Sheridan stations will soon also have elevators that are reprogrammed to stay open until a floor is selected.
RTD told Denver7 it cost the agency about $700 to reprogram the six elevators at the three initial stations.
RTD owns and operates 79 public-facing elevators, and of those, eight will need further investigation to determine if it's possible to reprogram them, should the agency choose to in the future. That endeavor would cost RTD approximately $61,350.
At the beginning of the pilot program, the agency established three goals to assess the success and effectiveness of the 90-day pilot program:
- "Determine if the operational adjustment reduced the number of calls and incidents reported."
- "Track if the operational adjustment yielded a decline in vandalism and damage to the elevators."
- "Determine if there was a decrease in customer complaints about cleanliness."
A new report from RTD details some of those goals were achieved within the 90 days. The agency added that in both 2023 and 2024 so far, drug activity was the leading reason for service calls.
RTD's Colorado station saw a 62.6% reduction in drug activities during the elevator pilot program. The Southmoor station saw a 58.4% reduction in the same kind of activity compared to the same time in 2023. RTD said it also saw a decrease in the number of people loitering at these stations during the program.
"It's a start, it's a start. But there's, you know, more that needs to be done," said Deborah Nixon, a driver for an RTD bus who passes the Nine Mile Station and uses the line to get to her division.
Nixon told Denver7 she has witnessed firsthand some of the activity that has happened inside of elevators at the Nine Mile Station and others close by.
"One time I got off at Nine Mile to go catch the light rail to my division and I pushed the elevator to open the doors, and they were sitting in there doing drugs right there," she said. "So, I just take the stairs."
That's exactly what RTD Deputy Police Chief Steve Martingano said the elevator pilot program is meant to deter.
"Individuals were not utilizing the elevators for its purpose of going up and down," he said. "This obviously would have more views of individuals when they're walking past the elevator, so if they did see something, they could report it to us."
However, RTD officials and operators aren't the only ones embracing the change. Ryan Turbek, who has been exclusively riding RTD trains as a means for transportation since 2020, told Denver7 he wasn't sure the elevator reprogramming at the Nine Mile Station was working, but he was elated to see RTD try something new.
"I don't know it's always in the right direction, but the fact that they are trying is great," Turbek said.
The three additional stations — the Colfax, Lakewood Wadsworth, and Sheridan stations — were chosen based on the number of calls for service they get for them, just as the initial three were selected, said RTD Deputy Police Chief Martingano.
"We picked those locations also because those three locations were about 5% of our calls of service," he said. "The original three were about 8% of our calls of service."
