Crime & Law

Cook County Prosecutors Launching New Task Force Focused on CTA Crime

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is launching a new task force focusing on CTA-related crimes and prosecutions as federal authorities continue pressuring Chicago officials to tamp down crime on the city’s bus and train lines.

In an email sent to state’s attorney staff Wednesday, O’Neill Burke announced the new internal Chicago Transit Authority Task Force and revised an office directive requiring prosecutors to seek any available court-ordered restrictions against those charged with violent crimes on CTA property.

She said those measures will help her office “efficiently and effectively prosecute transit-related crime.”

“Reducing crime on public transportation is now a top priority,” O’Neill Burke said in the email. “While other categories of violent crime dropped last year, violent offenses committed on public transit increased. Safe public transportation is essential for thriving communities. To meet this moment, we are stepping up to better protect the thousands of riders and transit workers who use the Chicago Transit Authority.”

The new task force will be comprised of 36 assistant state’s attorneys and investigators from multiple bureaus within O’Neill Burke’s office who will undergo specialized training with the CTA and the Chicago Police Department. They will then serve as an internal resource to strengthen transit-related prosecutions.

While prosecutors are already instructed to seek pretrial detention in all cases involving violent crimes committed along the CTA, O’Neill Burke on Wednesday also instructed her office to pursue court-ordered restrictions on access to transit systems and property if defendants in those cases are not ordered to be detained in jail.

While overall crime along the CTA has decreased year over year, according to CPD data, there have been increases in violent crimes such as aggravated battery and sexual assault.

The state’s attorney’s announcement comes as the Trump administration late last year threatened to withhold as much as $50 million in federal funding from the CTA unless leaders submitted an acceptable safety plan to fight violent crime throughout the city transit system.

That came after a man was arrested in November on federal terrorism charges after he allegedly set a woman on fire at random on a Blue Line train. The victim survived but was hospitalized for months with critical injuries.

CTA officials earlier this month published their new plan, which included a 75% increase in policing hours across the system, the addition of officers riding along on buses or stationed at bus stops along potential violence hotspots and physical upgrades such as heightened barriers, social service outreach and data-driven deployment focuses.

Nick Blumberg contributed to this report.

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