DENVER — Denver7 is getting new details about the first-ever detective bureau being created by RTD’s police department.
RTD is aiming to establish its detective bureau by May 1, starting with three detectives and planning to expand to a total of five by the year’s end. In January, two Transit Police officers, Fabian Rodriguez and Brian Beary, were promoted to detectives, with the addition of Craig Tangeman as the third detective on Jan. 21.
In late January, Denver7 reported on the introduction of the detective bureau, a model already functioning in various major cities such as Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Covering approximately 2,400 square miles across eight counties and 40 municipal districts, RTD’s buses and trains are traversed by many individuals. At present, when a crime transpires on an RTD vehicle, the responsible law enforcement agency from the area where the incident occurred is tasked with conducting the investigation.
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.
