DENVER — Denver7 is getting new details about the first-ever detective bureau being created by RTD's police department.
RTD has said it hopes to have it up and running by May 1. It will start with three detectives and the agency has budgeted to add two more by the end of the year. In January, the RTD Police Department (RTD-PD) promoted Transit Police officers Fabian Rodriguez to detective lieutenant and Brian Beary to detective. The third detective, Craig Tangeman, joined RTD-PD on Jan. 21.
Denver7 covered the announcement of the detective bureau in late January — a concept that is already in place in other major cities, including Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
RTD buses and trains travel about 2,400 square miles through eight counties and 40 municipal districts. Currently, when a crime occurs on an RTD train or bus, the law enforcement agency whose jurisdiction the crime occurred in must investigate it.
RTD's Acting Deputy Chief Brian Cousineau said the new detective bureau will go a long way toward making that sometimes-messy process more efficient and ultimately making RTD buses, trains, and properties safer.
"One, we take ownership of these criminal events. And secondly, our partner agencies aren't tying up their resources for crimes that happen in our jurisdiction," said Acting Deputy Chief Cousineau. "I am very optimistic. By taking ownership of criminal events, we can better track them. We can put resources and officers into these areas that need it."
The detective bureau is part of RTD's broader plan to reduce crime. The agency currently has about 90 police officers. It plans to have 150 by the end of 2025. In 2019, RTD's police force had only 19 officers.
According to RTD, Rodriguez has served as an officer for 27 years, mostly at the Adams County Sheriff's Office, where he supervised general investigations and the North Metro Drug Task Force. Beary has served in law enforcement for 18 years. Prior to joining RTD-PD, he was a criminal investigator for the Colorado Department of Revenue. Tangeman has 26 years in law enforcement, 19 of them working investigative operations for Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
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