* Yesterday, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union spoke to the House Transportation Committee about safety. Daily Herald…
As CTA workers described harrowing violence on buses and trains, city and suburban lawmakers pledged to help make the transit system safer during a Tuesday state hearing in Springfield. […]
“It’s important that we don’t get stopped by interagency fights,” Moylan said. “We have to get a full-time police force on these systems as soon as possible.” […]
“I’ve witnessed (the system) go from a strong police and undercover presence to nearly none,” said Keith Hill, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. […]
In the short term, union officials advocated for larger, more robust shields for bus drivers.
Republican state Rep. Brad Stephens of Rosemont, whose district includes Chicago, endorsed that idea and said the status quo was “just insane. It seems unfathomable that somebody’s not taking this a little bit more seriously.”
* Some background from Chicago Magazine…
Just as with riders, safety is a chief concern of train operators these days. [Pennie McCoach, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308] says there aren’t enough Chicago Police Department officers working the CTA — fewer than 100 are assigned to the whole system, she said at a recent state senate hearing. One operator, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that since the start of the pandemic, the level of harassment and violence toward frontline CTA employees has escalated. The agency hired more unarmed private security guards in 2022 to supplement CPD efforts, but the operator says those guards have little impact, spending much of their time standing around, looking at their phones. The operator described a recent meeting between CTA employees and an official from the security force. The operator asked why the guards don’t have handcuffs or hold people in custody until CPD officers arrive. The executive responded, “You don’t want one of our guards to get jumped, do you?”
* ATU members told the committee the Chicago Transit Authority spends about $83 million on its private security contract. The CTA board of directors recently approved a $1.2 million contract to expand an AI-powered gun detection surveillance program. Assistant Majority Leader Marcus Evans sharply criticized the private security contract during the hearing…
[Operators] should not be police officers. You all should not be security officers. In addition, the current security contract is a joke. Let’s get rid of that. Let’s have dedicated Transit Police. […]
Other cities are already doing it, don’t let them lie to you. And every Chicago member, I want to see them talking about this, and I’m making a demand. And thank you Chairman Marty Moylan because he’s facilitating these conversations. Y’all gotta speak up. They’re trying to get all this money, give it to the next person to run CTA so they can make $300,000.
The CTA’s transit police force was disbanded in 1979.
* From one operator’s testimony yesterday…
My name is Eric Sylvester, I’ve been with the CTA for 17 years, and fortunately, I’ve never had a dangerous situation until March 13. I was curbing the bus to let people off. And the individuals got off the rear of the bus, one of them came around to the front and shot a young man right at the door. And my shield shattered, it didn’t crumble it shattered. If it wasn’t the fact that I was looking back. There was a bullet hole directly by my head. Meaning if I had been sitting straight up. [I’d be dead.]
Transit operators brought photos to the committee showing injuries and damage to buses and trains caused by violent passengers. Click here to view some of the images—please note that a few are graphic.
* Amalgamated Transit Union 241 President and Business Agent Keith Hill on what immediate changes could help with security issues…
The first thing we can do is close us in, give us a fully enclosed shield [for bus drivers]. They can retrofit the older busses on that. Give us the shield to go all the way in the winter to reduce the objects being thrown, there’s people spitting on us. That’s one of the quickest things we can do. The other quickest thing is the security firm, and they have right now is a joke. […] We ask the police today, even if you see a bus and you stop at the light with us, just roll your window down and say, Hey, is everything okay?
Sometimes the presence is a bigger deterrence than the actual person standing there. Those are two that we can get, which I don’t believe the agencies are partnering well with law enforcement. I’m begging to sit in the room with some of the law enforcement leaders. We can make their job easier when they can make our job easier, just a presence, so a conversation, but the most important thing right away is the shield.
Thoughts?
…Adding… 47th Ward in comments…
There is a bit of a chicken/egg thing going on here. I ride the CTA every day. Pre-COVID, the trains were generally crowded during the day, especially during morning and evening rush. Now, with remote work, trains are less crowded.
It used to be that so many regular commuters made it difficult if not impossible for smokers or other rule breakers to get away with their bad behavior. Now, it seems like the CTA is a rolling mental health shelter, and those bad actors out number the regular commuters.
If more people got back on CTA, fewer people would think it was a safe space for drug use and crime. But because of the drug use and crime, more people are avoiding CTA.
I’d love to tell the idiots to put out the cigarettes and smoke their dope somewhere else, but I don’t want to get stabbed over it. We’re on our own, and that is a major reason the CTA can’t get riders back.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:15 pm:
=Transit workers demand safety protections=
In most places, that headline would bring to mind
OSHA or Personal protective equipment like safety glasses, boots, and gloves for folks who work on buses and trains. But of course, this is Chicago, so the workers need protection against the riders.
- Steve - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:23 pm:
Can’t say the union here doesn’t have a good idea with the shield.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:30 pm:
The private security are completely useless (I believe it is Monterrey Security). Use that money on actual police. It is hard to explain, but if you have ridden the system over time, which I have for basically my teenage and adult life, you know how much safety has declined. I would ride from Oak Park to night Sox games in the early 2000s with a buddy and not think much of it. Wasn’t perfect, but no big deal. It’s much worse now.
- Jerry - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:34 pm:
Observed a gate jumper right in front of the security guards with dogs standing right there looking.
- NIU Grad - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:35 pm:
I have never seen a Metra Police Department officer on a train (or even at a station), a CTA paid security officer on a train, or the Chicago Police Department Transit Detail officer on a train…CTA’s security involves mass hordes of officers and security milling about at stations, rather than spreading out throughout the system.
The funding is clearly there for security already. There is just no leadership pushing the officers to serve as actual “transit cops” rather than “station cops”.
- ElTacoBandito - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:39 pm:
The private security is such a joke. If there is any issue whatsoever, they move as a group to the opposite side of the train. Not blaming the workers, they’re not trained to handle that, but the CTA for thinking this band-aid would help.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 1:43 pm:
=Monterrey Security=
Of course, it is Monterrey Security. More signs of the rot of corruption in Chicago. The long arm of influence of the Solis family ensures that they get all the big contracts
- DQ - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:00 pm:
Obviously the penalties for criminal behavior on the CTA are not severe enough
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:05 pm:
===the penalties===
lol
When security is ridic and the cops don’t show up, penalties are beside the point.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:09 pm:
There is a bit of a chicken/egg thing going on here. I ride the CTA every day. Pre-COVID, the trains were generally crowded during the day, especially during morning and evening rush. Now, with remote work, trains are less crowded.
It used to be that so many regular commuters made it difficult if not impossible for smokers or other rule breakers to get away with their bad behavior. Now, it seems like the CTA is a rolling mental health shelter, and those bad actors out number the regular commuters.
If more people got back on CTA, fewer people would think it was a safe space for drug use and crime. But because of the drug use and crime, more people are avoiding CTA.
I’d love to tell the idiots to put out the cigarettes and smoke their dope somewhere else, but I don’t want to get stabbed over it. We’re on our own, and that is a major reason the CTA can’t get riders back.
- The Opinions Bureau - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:22 pm:
I found it notable that when the ATU was asked what the engagement from CPD Supt. Snelling has been on the issue of safety on transit, the response from the workers was bitter laughter.
- Former CTA Rider - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:57 pm:
Wanted to give the Blue Line another chance. Got on at O’Hare. As soon as the train left, two guys lit up a joint. Then they started getting in the face of other passengers. When I exited the train - 3 private security personnel were chatting away on the ground floor of the station. Useless. Worse than useless. Should have saved the money the CTA is paying Montgomery. CTA lost another rider.
- DQ - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:57 pm:
Penalties for law breakers are beside the point?
There used to be serious fines for smoking, littering, gambling, drinking and radio playing on the CTA
Now they don’t even announce they are prohibited and there are no consequences for those that do
How is behavior going to improve so people feel safe to ride again?
- Jose Abreu's Last Homerun - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 2:59 pm:
I took the Montrose blue line this morning because the Metra I use at Mayfair was runnin 25 mins late. When I take a CTA I’ll always pick the front cart because if something goes haywire with an unfortunate interaction, I’d think it’s safer with the train operator nearby. It’s def a false comfort as I know that the operator isn’t a cop or security, it’s just how I mentally prepare to board a CTA in current environment.
- Homebody - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:11 pm:
The chicken/egg safety thing should be obvious to anyone who was a regular rider even before covid. Packed commuter buses or trains had a very different feel than the red line at 4am, or a non-commuter bus at 11am, even back in the 2010s.
- Leatherneck - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
The ATU has been urging the reinstatement of the CTA police force as far back as May 1988:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/1988/05/04/cta-urged-to-get-own-police/ (article behind paywall)
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:28 pm:
You see people wearing ski masks on the train in the middle of summer to hide their face from the cameras. Plenty of people where masks on the train to hide from the cameras, not for COVID reasons. It should not be too hard to investigate and prosecute crime on the CTA. There are cameras everywhere, but for whatever reason it is not working. There’s always been homeless people and people with mental health problems on the CTA, but this is different.
- low level - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:43 pm:
Ive been riding CTA for 40+ years. 47th Ward amd others have hit it on the head exactly.
- Telly - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:43 pm:
Absolutely outstanding take by 47th Ward. CTA needs a security surge for a couple of years on trains to turn this around.
- Chicagonk - Wednesday, Apr 23, 25 @ 3:53 pm:
Marcus Evans is completely right about that security contract being a joke.