RTD customers: Transit Watch app is now available in Spanish

RTD customers rely upon the Transit Watch app to report safety and security concerns directly to RTD’s Transit Police Department. Today, RTD is pleased to announce that a Spanish version of the app is live on both Android and Apple platforms, enabling real-time communication in Spanish between RTD’s customers and its safety and security staff.

Since its debut in the Denver metro region nine years ago, the Transit Watch app has been downloaded close to 39,000 times. The app, available on both iOS and Android devices, enables users to quickly, easily and, if they choose, anonymously communicate with RTD’s Transit Police Department. In the moment, this information helps RTD coordinate response across the agency’s service district to respond to incidents. Longer term, such details allow RTD to understand trends and inform decision-making related to outreach and deployment of resources.

Of the 9,611 incidents reported to Transit Police in the first three months of this year, approximately 15% were identified through use of the Transit Watch app. About two-thirds of the incidents reported in the app during this period concerned drug activity.

The work to add Spanish functionality in the app began more than a year ago, in light of a customer approaching Deputy Police Chief Steve Martingano to ask how Spanish-speaking customers could report suspicious behaviors on RTD vehicles and properties. With approval to proceed from General Manager and CEO Debra A. Johnson, members of RTD’s Transit Police staff worked with The Brass Star Group, the developer of the app, to build a version of Transit Watch in Spanish.

To access the Spanish version of Transit Watch, customers must set the language on their smartphone to Spanish and update the Transit Watch app from the respective Apple or Google store to the latest version available. With these details in place, the app will open in Spanish.

For public safety dispatchers, information submitted through the app in Spanish appears before them in English and Spanish. This fact enables English-speaking employees to continue chatting through the app with Spanish-speaking customers, even those who choose to remain anonymous.

Transit Watch is easy to use in either language. In opening the app, users have the option to call RTD Transit Police or report an incident. Incident reports can be created quickly, and the app provides options to select the type of incident, identify a location and time, and add a photo if desired. (Videos cannot be accepted.) Once submitted, details arrive in seconds in Transit Police Communications.

In addition to using Transit Watch, RTD customers can report suspicious activities to 303-299-2911, text 303-434-9100 or email [email protected].