CTA's new safety plan boosts police patrols, adds AI gun detection

CHICAGO - The Chicago Transit Authority has submitted a new safety plan to the Federal Transit Administration in an effort to avoid losing $50 million in funding.

The plan, released Tuesday, includes a 75% increase in monthly system policing hours, aggressive crime-reduction targets and other measures.

What we know:

The transit agency said the plan was created in collaboration with the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

In a letter published last December, the FTA said the CTA was out of compliance with a special safety directive issued earlier that month requiring measurable reductions in assaults on transit workers and customers, along with a surge in security staffing.

The agency rejected the CTA’s previous security enhancement plan, calling it "materially deficient" and inadequate to ensure immediate improvements in safety.

The new plan follows a November incident in which a man set a woman on fire aboard a CTA train.

According to the CTA, the plan commits to a 75% increase in monthly policing hours, including:

• A 34% increase in hours from the Chicago Police Department’s Public Transit Section.
• Doubling the number of off-duty officers patrolling the CTA on their days off as part of the department’s voluntary special employment program.
• Cook County sheriff’s police officers will also be working on CTA rail lines.

Dig deeper:

The CTA said the plan also includes new law enforcement initiatives aimed at enhancing public safety, including:

• Transit Rider Interaction Program missions, in which teams of six to eight officers board trains and inspect cars at high-incident stations.
• Bus ride-along missions targeting routes with the most reported crimes and highest rates of fare evasion.
• Bus Safe Corridor missions, which station officers at bus stops in high-crime areas during peak hours.

Since the CTA and CPD introduced a joint security surge in December, the agency said assaults on transit workers fell 25% in January and 29% in February compared with the six-month average.

The CTA said violent crime on buses fell 19%, overall system crime dropped 9%, and incidents on the rail system declined 9%.

The plan also includes partnerships with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services and the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The CTA said it will install additional high-barrier fare gates at rail stations with high rates of fare evasion, launch fare card inspection missions and use new data tools to track fare evasion more precisely.

The plan also calls for expanding AI-powered gun detection technology to more than 1,500 cameras across Chicago rail stations and enhancing fare messaging on CTA buses.

What's next:

The safety plan will be reviewed by the FTA.