DENVER — The Regional Transportation District's new police chief, Dr. Joel Fitzgerald, makes more than the chiefs of Colorado’s three largest police departments, an analysis of police leadership salaries by 9NEWS found.
The agency confirms Fitzgerald will make $250,000 per year to run the transit agency’s police department.
That sum is more than police chiefs in Colorado’s three largest cities: Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora.
In Denver, Chief Paul Pazen saw his salary increase to $236,505 on July 1 of this year, according to an ordinance. Pazen oversees a force of approximately 1,430 sworn officers, according to a department spokesperson.
Aurora’s new interim police chief, Dan Oates, is making $219,000, according to Lt. Chris Amsler, a department spokesman. Oates oversees 704 sworn officers. His predecessor, Vanessa Wilson, was on track to make $215,736 before she was fired earlier this year.
In Colorado Springs, the new police chief, Adrian Vasquez, makes $205,359 to manage an authorized force of 803 sworn officers.
RTD’s transit police team is made up of 21 sworn officers, an RTD spokesman told 9NEWS last week when Fitzgerald was sworn in.
RTD said Fitzgerald also oversees a team of 294 contract security personnel, as well as 15 officers from the Denver, Aurora, Thornton and Lakewood police departments who work various shifts for RTD.
"Following a nationwide search, Dr. Joel Fitzgerald, Sr. was selected as the RTD Transit Police Department’s Chief of Police and Emergency Management," RTD CEO Debra Johnson wrote in a statement sent to 9NEWS the morning after this story aired. "Eminently qualified for the position, with over 30 years of law enforcement and having served as police chief in several jurisdictions, Chief Fitzgerald’s charge is to oversee, expand and optimize the department."
"Recognizing transit police departments are unique in that they operate within other law enforcement jurisdictions and across county and municipal boundaries, the RTD’s police chief position requires that the optimal candidate possess significant, multifaceted law enforcement experience, an aptitude for diplomacy and collaboration, resource management skills, and intimate familiarity with local, state, and federal laws and regulations," Johnson said. "The salary for the position of Chief of Police and Emergency Management is in line with similar positions for sworn chiefs of police in transit agencies as well as the salaries of persons serving in transit executive roles."
Here are the salaries of the leaders of other Colorado law enforcement agencies:
- Boulder Police Department Chief Maris Herold
- $192,420
- 161 sworn officers (authorized for 190)
- Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock
- $153,332
- 375 sworn deputies
- Adams County Sheriff Rick Reigenborn
- $153,332
- 431 sworn deputies
- Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown
- $153,332
- 518 sworn deputies (authorized for 563)
- Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle
- $167,606
- 245 sworn deputies
County sheriff salaries are set by state statute depending on the class of the county.
Officials in Weld County, which is a home rule municipality, are considering pay raises for their county elected officials next year. A proposal would increase the sheriff’s salary to $250,000.
Fitzgerald has a big job ahead of him, working to expand RTD’s police department to rely less on contracted security officers.
At the same time, crime has increased on RTD’s system, with calls for service to the agency’s police department increasing 28% since 2020.
Fitzgerald has said one of his first goals is to make RTD security more visible to deter crime on buses and trains and help riders feel safer.
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