RTD names Steve Martingano new police chief

The Regional Transportation District’s acting police chief, who stepped into the role after his predecessor was fired last year, will officially take on the position next month.

Steve Martingano will be sworn in as RTD’s chief of police and emergency management on May 13 at Denver’s Union Station, officials said in a news release.

Martingano has been with RTD for more than a decade and was named acting co-chief of the police department last July after the former chief, Joel Fitzgerald, was put on leave and later fired for violating department policies.

Fitzgerald filed a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination by RTD leaders in November, two months after he was fired, according to court records. He said he was investigated “for purported infractions for which white officers were not investigated” and fired “for the alleged infractions for which white officers had not been historically disciplined.”

The lawsuit is ongoing.

RTD’s second acting co-chief resigned in February, leaving Martingano as the sole interim chief, agency officials said.

On April 15, RTD announced that Martingano and Jim Cook, the current assistant chief of the Amtrak Police Department, were both finalists for the role. Ultimately, the job went to Martingano.

Under Martingano’s nine months of leadership, RTD implemented a four-step action plan focused on visibility, customer education, fare enforcement and technology, agency officials said in the news release.

RTD saw a 52% decrease in security-related calls for service from February 2024 to February 2025, the agency announced last month.

Martingano said that drop in calls stemmed from RTD deploying more officers in high-visibility areas, conducting fare sweeps and “maintaining a regular presence.”

To do so, RTD’s police department aggressively hired new officers, growing from five officers in 2022 to nearly 100 in 2025, the agency said in the release.

RTD officials said it also saw a nearly 60% reduction in calls at Denver’s Union Station following the agency’s three-year “Reclaim Union Station” plan, which started in March 2022.