CTA brings K-9 units onto Red Line amid continued worries about violent crime, and it doesn't come cheap
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As we headed into the long holiday weekend Friday, many CTA Red Line riders have been feeling rattled after a series of violent crimes across the city's busiest 'L' line.
To help put riders at ease, the Chicago Transit Authority is sending some four-legged security guards – and it comes at a massive price tag.
The first K-9 CTA units were deployed on the Red Line on Friday. Remaining K-9 teams will be deployed through October, after they complete training.
The CTA signed a new contract last week with Action K9 to provide up to 100 unarmed guards and 50 canines per day including supervision and supporting equipment across CTA rails for 18 months -- adding to the 300 unarmed security currently deployed.
The CTA said the K-9 teams will be "strategically deployed across its rail system, including patrols along the Red Line and Blue Line, the system's two busiest lines, which both operate 24/7, and have recently seen a spike in crime."
The total contract for 100 guards and 50 K-9s — per day — will come in just under $31 million.
Some Red Line riders were glad to see the K-9s.
"When I seen those officers and that canine, I knew like Chicago PD is out here - and you know, they're keeping us safe, and they're doing the best that they can," said Red Line rider Precious Williams.
The teams at the 95th Street Red Line station were deployed less than two hours after a judge denied bond for 31-year-old Christian Thompson — who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting that killed 40-year-old Anthony Binion on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
Prosecutors said Thompson started a fight with Binion at the 69th Street station around 8:30 p.m. that night. Words turned into fatal gunshots.
Thompson just got out of prison for threatening to kill a woman at knife point. He had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016, but was released early in April.
On Friday, the CPD also said they're looking to identify three people seen in snapshots from surveillance video – who are responsible for an aggravated battery just after midnight on Saturday, Aug. 27, in a Red Line train car near the Lake Street stop.
A 30-year-old woman was shot in a train car at that time and location.
If it feels like violent crimes on the CTA are on the rise this year, that's because they are. At this point last year, there were 465 violent crimes reported on the CTA system, compared with 592 during the same period this year.
Back at 95th Street, a Red Line rider who takes the 'L' back from work late at night said she remembers K-9 units on the 'L' in the past - and doesn't know why they left.
"When they were out, there wasn't no trouble," said the Red Line rider, Nikki.
The CTA declined an on-camera interview, but a representative confirmed they used to have a contract with the same K-9 security company about three years ago — with good results.
We'll check back in to see if — and how — it impacts crime this time around.