Police are no longer investigating several crimes that happened on the CTA this month -- why?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A stabbing, an aggravated robbery, and an assault on a CTA train operator are three of the crimes on the Chicago Transit Authority system we've tracked this month.
They are also three crimes that Chicago Police are no longer investigating.
Police told CBS 2's Tara Molina they have suspended a number of investigations into crimes on the CTA less than a month after the crimes occurred. One of the crimes happened just last week.
The investigations were suspended without any additional information or photos having been shared with the public.
The CTA union is also now asking why police have done this.
On Monday, April 4, a CTA train operator was pushed onto the Red Line tracks at the Granville stop in Edgewater. It happened after he someone asked for help getting a cellphone that had fallen onto the tracks.
The train operator was stuck on the tracks until emergency personnel arrived. He was taken to AMITA Health St. Francis Hospital in Evanston with minor injuries -- thankfully having missed the electrified third rail.
The attack raised big red flags for other CTA workers, and it was one of the first violent crimes reported on the CTA this month. We've been tracking them ever since.
That is how we learned the investigations of case involving the assault of the train operator and four others have now been suspended by Chicago Police.
All of the incidents in question were violent.
The incidents also include an attack just last Monday in which a 57-year-old man was struck in the head with a bottle and robbed in the Red Line subway near the Grand Avenue station; another four days earlier in which a man was held at gunpoint and robbed on a Red Line train at the Bryn Mawr stop; a robbery on the night of Wednesday, April 6 at the Cermak-McCormick Place stop on the Green Line; and an incident in which a man was attacked and punched on the night of Tuesday, April 5 at the Lake Street Red Line stop.
"It's alarming," said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 President and Business Agent Eric Dixon, who Zoomed with us Tuesday from Springfield. "It does nothing to deter people from doing the things that they're doing now."
Dixon said he hasn't had a chance to talk to the operator pushed on the tracks, but he calls the case being suspended doubly concerning for CTA workers.
"We have individuals out here that feel like they can do whatever they want to do and get away with it," Dixon said.
A Chicago Police spokesperson explained what a suspended case means.
"A suspended status means the case cannot proceed further at this time. That can happen for a variety of reasons, including detectives exhausting all leads currently available," the spokesperson explained. "It is not a permanent status and it can be changed if and when more information becomes available."
Police are still seeking such information in other cases. On Tuesday, issued a community alert asking for the public's help in finding a man who stabbed and robbed another man on a Red Line train near the Belmont stop this week.
Police said at 4:40 a.m. Monday, the attacker walked up to a 44-year-old man on the train, stabbed him with a knife, forcibly took his property, and ran off.
We asked why alerts weren't issued for the five suspended cases…why photos of those offenders weren't shared, even in the interest of public safety, with about 40,000 cameras rolling on the CTA.
A police spokesperson responded with a statement they've issued before on this subject: "If detectives have videos or images they want released, they will create a Community Alert, which our office will disseminate at that time."
Again, Chicago Police say the suspended status isn't necessarily permanent, but still won't address why pictures or videos of the suspects aren't being shared with the public in these cases no longer being actively investigated.
The Chicago Transit Authority released the following statement:
"For security reasons, we don't discuss the specifics of the deployments.
"We can tell you that guards are deployed around the clock, seven days a week. The number of guards varies by location.
"For your question regarding the investigation of crimes, the Chicago Police Department provides law enforcement for the CTA, including investigations. They are the appropriate entity to address your question."