New CTA security plan: sheriff's deputies on trains, high-barrier gates, farecard checks

The Chicago Transit Authority is deploying sheriff's deputies on its trains, installing high-barrier entry gates to deter fare evasion, and starting "farecard inspection missions" after the agency's federal funding was threatened.

The CTA presented those changes in a revised security plan Tuesday to the Federal Transit Administration, which had been threatening to a cut a $50 million grant if the CTA did not revise its security plan to the FTA's liking. The FTA has been pressuring the CTA to improve system safety since a woman was set on fire in November on a Blue Line train.

This is the CTA's second revised safety plan. The FTA called CTA’s December response, which included boosting officers in its volunteer overtime program and K9 security unit, "materially deficient."

The CTA's new plan, which must now be reviewed by the FTA, goes further.

The agency is committing to 75% more policing hours on its system. To do that, it is, among other things:

• Raising the policing hours of the Chicago Police Department's public transit section by 34%. (The unit is staffed by 177 officers.)
• Doubling the number of off-duty officers patrolling through the police department's Voluntary Special Employment Program to 240. (That number already has been raised once. In December, it was boosted to 120 from 77.)
• Having Cook County sheriff's deputies patrol the system's rail lines at a combined rate of 4,400 hours per month. Neither the CTA nor the sheriff's office would say how many officers it would take to meet those targets. The hourly number, however, is about 20% of what the police department's transit section typically works, according to figures in CTA's December response to the FTA.

Among other changes:

The CTA will test high-barrier entry gates to prevent fare evasion. Such gates, which don't comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, will be installed at rail stations that typically are staffed but still have high rates of fare evasion, the CTA said.

The agency will also begin "farecard inspection missions" this year. The goal, according to the CTA, is to "uncover the use of free, reduced, or other entitlement fare media by someone other than the authorized holder and revoke the entitlement ..."

The CTA will begin more forceful messaging about paying fares. New bus signs and "fare required" audio announcements are being added to CTA buses, according to the agency.

The CTA also said it has partnered with the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois to create a Project Safe Neighborhoods on transit. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a federally funded, nationwide initiative integrating the resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement.

It's the first time that type of deployment has been made on transit, according to the CTA. Additional details about how it will be implemented were not released.

The CTA said its increased enforcement since December is already having a positive impact. Assaults on transit workers were down 25% in January, and 29% in February, according to the CTA. The agency also pointed to violent crime decreasing 19% this year, through the end of February, compared to the same period in 2025.

"The January and February results from CTA and CPD’s joint security surge have been promising, and we’ve built on that momentum by creating a sustainable security model that puts people first," CTA acting President Nora Leerhsen said in a news release announcing the changes.

The Cook County sheriff's office involvement is notable because this summer that agency will lead a public safety task force to determine if Chicago-area transit needs its own police department. The task force was established by the same recently passed state law that created the Northern Illinois Transit Authority. That law goes into effect in June.

“The CTA is one of the largest public transit systems in America, and our office looks forward to working closely with them as they expand and invest in their security environment,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was quoted as saying in the announcement.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that violent attacks on the CTA reached historic highs last year.

The FTA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.