CTA says it's deploying security guards, with goal of 300 per day
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Gunpoint robberies, attacks, stabbings – we've tracked it all on our public transit system just this month alone.
Meanwhile, federal lawmakers this week joined the calls for changes with the goal of curbing crime on the Chicago Transit Authority system.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported Thursday, more help may now be on the way in the form of unarmed security guards.
The CTA said between 200 and 220 unarmed security guards are now on the transit system every single day in response to increasing crime on the CTA. The goal is to get 300 on patrol, with a number of guards still now in training.
The training includes de-escalation and conflict resolution.
These are brand-new updates from a CTA spokesperson. Until now, the CTA had not addressed any of our questions about the security patrols – for weeks.
But what have those 200 or so guards prevented so far? Are they spread out or working in groups?
To those questions, there are still no answers – and the lion's share of the violent crimes on CTA trains, buses, platforms, and stations are still unsolved.
Chicago Police told us all but one of 12 violent crimes we've tracked this month are still under investigation. These crimes include:
• A gunpoint robbery targeting a woman on a Pink Line Train near the Kedzie stop in Lawndale early on the morning of Thursday, April 14.
• Another gunpoint robbery at the same station on the platform five minutes later, targeting two men.
• A gunpoint robbery early that same morning, targeting a 48-year-old man who had fallen asleep on a southbound Red Line train near the Bryn Mawr station.
• An attack on a man at Belmont and Kimball avenues in Avondale on Tuesday, April 12 just before midnight;
• The stabbing of a 40-year-old man on a Red Line train at the Chicago Avenue subway station in River North at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, April 12;
• A shooting on a Route 53 Pulaski CTA bus in the 700 block of South Pulaski Road on Sunday, April 10, in which the shooter got away northbound on foot;
• A Pink Line attack on a woman near the Harold Washington Library-State/Van Buren stop downtown around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in which a woman was assaulted. The assailant took of northbound on State Street;
• A stabbing around 6 p.m. Friday, April 8, at the Roosevelt Red Line subway station, with a fight that started on the mezzanine and was followed by a fight in the street in which the assailants punched and kicked the man while he was on the ground. Five juveniles have been charged in that incident.
• A robbery in which a man was stabbed at 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, at the Cermak-McCormick Place stop on the Green Line;
• An incident just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in which a man was punched by a group of people at the Lake Street subway station on the Red Line downtown;
• An attack on Monday, April 4, in which a train operator was pushed onto the tracks as he looked down for a cellphone someone said they dropped at the Granville Red Line station in Edgewater.
For the Roosevelt station attack on Friday, April 8, police said they do not have any information beyond the charges when asked if there were any updates – or if the juveniles who were arrested are believed to be connected to other recent crimes.
For all the others, police responded, "Detectives are still investigating."
Meanwhile this week, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García (D-Illinois) sent a letter to CTA President Dorval Carter calling for greater action to prevent crime on the transit system.
In the letter, the lawmakers asked CTA President Dorval Carter to enact a provision required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, to improve safety for both passengers and transit workers.
"While we appreciate the efforts that both the CTA and Chicago Police Department recently have made to increase passenger and employee safety on trains and buses throughout the CTA's network, more needs to be done to protect CTA's frontline workers and passengers given the alarming increase in crime on the CTA system," the lawmakers wrote.
In the letter, Durbin and García cited a 17 percent increase in CTA crime, per city officials.
Durbin and García's full letter can be found here.
But we looked closer, running the information from the Chicago data portal ourselves, and found that number is actually up much higher - more than 40 percent since this time last year.
The number jumped from 289 total crimes to 432 - including homicides, sexual assaults, robbery, aggravated assaults, aggravated battery, and theft - on buses, trains, bus stops, CTA platforms, and stations.
"We've committed, as we've said, more resources from CPD to the CTA," said police Supt. David Brown.
Brown addressed an uptick in crime on the CTA this week, with no details on the increased commitment from police. But Brown said their presence will continue to grow as CPD focuses in on crime hotspots on the CTA.
"Where data shows us crime is more prevalent on the CTA - to include riding those CTA trains where we see significant criminal activity," Brown said.
We sent the numbers we broke down to every city office, with no response late Thursday.
But spokesperson for the CTA told us they will give us an update once all of those unarmed security guards have been deployed on the CTA system.
