RTD ramps up K-9 force to improve safety, security

The Regional Transportation District is deploying more counterterrorism dogs for station sweeps and inspections on buses and trains, the latest effort to ramp up security and encourage riders to return.

Three new K-9 team members, Belgian Malinois dogs, include Milo, born and bred in Hungary, who RTD transit police officer Corey Averill describes as extremely focused and motivated.

“Milo lives for his job,” Averill said. “If he was a house pet, he would go nuts. He wants to work.”

The expanded K-9 capacity — RTD previously had one dog — is part of a security campaign to boost security on public transit around metro Denver as violence has spilled into RTD buses and trains. RTD’s annual ridership has decreased from 106 million in 2019 to around 65 million.

RTD directors face a tough challenge because the bus and train service area spans 2,342 square miles across eight counties, one of the largest transit service areas in the nation. It’s impossible to cover every route.

The security push began with the deployment of more transit police officers — an increase from 19 at the end of 2022 to 88 this month. By the end of 2025, that number will reach 150, including a new group of detectives to conduct investigations of transit-related crimes, the agency’s transit police acting co-chiefs Glyn Horn and Steven Martingano said in an interview this week.

The more people see a police uniform, the safer they feel,” Horn said.

The increased police, combined with K-9 sweeps, “will not only increase safety but the perception of it – feeling safer,” he said. “This will increase ridership.”

Starting this month, RTD K-9 handlers say Milo, along with Belgian Malinois K-9 cohorts Koa and Rayne and a seasoned Labrador (Kylo), will conduct regular sweeps at day and night in RTD stations and among passengers on buses and trains. A grant to RTD from the Federal Emergency Management Administration funded the acquisition of the dogs.

They’re certified through rigorous training to detect explosives, similar to counterterrorism dogs at airports. When RTD police officers receive tips, typically for unattended bags and packages, the dogs can help assess risks so supervisors can decide whether to call in a bomb squad.

Beyond explosives, Averill said RTD K-9s will help deter illegal drug use and other unwanted activity at stations and on buses and trains. He recounted a recent incident where a suspicious-looking passenger saw a dog and suddenly broke into a “sprint-walk” off a train, leaving his wife on board. A man who was yelling and threatening to fight with RTD police officers in Union Station saw Averill approaching with a dog and silently departed.

RTD police supervisors say they’ll still rely heavily on surveillance cameras and tips from riders to concentrate patrols in problem areas because their territory is so big.

“The average person feels quite safe in their own car and giving that up to spend time on an RTD bus or train or at a station is already going to be less comfortable with no heat or AC,” incoming RTD director Chris Nicholson said. “Then you tack on someone smoking fentanyl or harassing you or trying to sell you drugs, or having a severe mental health episode, and suddenly the gap between the comfort you experience in your car and what you’re getting from transit becomes big enough that people say ‘no thank you.’ ”

The new dogs will be up and running by the end of the year.

All are “people neutral” and, when RTD handlers signal they can socialize, will enjoy meeting riders, Averill said.

But when directed to conduct sweeps they are highly determined with instincts honed to protect people from potentially catastrophic attacks by finding explosives and swiftly alerting their handlers, he said.

“It is definitely better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.”

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