The CTA board wants Chicago Police Department representatives to come its August meeting to answer questions about public safety on CTA buses and ‘L’ trains.
Concerns about transit safety, whether real or perceived, has been something of a recurring motif at CTA board meetings, and the July meeting, which was held today, was no different. But it was the first time in recent months that a board member said he wanted a chance to put specific questions to the CPD. With the Democratic National Convention coming to Chicago next month, the board was concerned that safety issues could get worse as officers are pulled from their duties to bolster security in the central city.
CTA President Dorval Carter responded he will reach out to Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling to set something up in time for the August 14 meeting.
Today's board meeting also saw Joe Brogdon, a business manager at Teamsters Local 700, which represents CTA construction managers, urging the agency to go back to the bargaining table and move forward after 2.5 years of failed negotiations. And Micheál Podgers, the policy lead at Better Streets Chicago, turned to the topic of the reconstruction of the North DuSable Lake Shore Drive, urging the board to support an alternative that includes a dedicated transit corridor, and moves away from just rebuilding the eight-lane highway.
Public safety
The CTA used to have its own police force, but it was disbanded in the 1980s. Aside from CPD, the transit agency has contracts with suburban police departments to patrol and respond to issues at stations in the 'burbs.
Meeting attendee Antoine Members, who lives in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, is a Cook County Sheriff's deputy who ran for several political offices as a Republican. Most recently, in one of the most eyebrow-raising moments of the 2024 primary season, he ran for 29th Ward Republican committeeperson while his wife Zerlina Smith-Members ran for its Democratic equivalent. [This reminds me of when Donald Trump's Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway was married to anti-Trump activist George Conway. -Ed] Both withdrew after their nominating petitions were challenged.
Antoine Members was at the meeting to urge the CTA to reopen the Racine/63rd Green Line station, pointing to support from the local elected officials, and the fact that last year’s advisory referendum overwhelmingly passed. But he also used his public comment time to discuss public safety on the CTA. He admitted that he isn’t a regular rider, but when his own car needed repair, he ended up taking the 'L' for the first time since the pandemic.
"It’s just out of control [nowadays],” Members said. “I mean, smoking. I had to talk to a young man, 'Can you stop smoking please?' Almost got into a fight with him."
He added that, as a law enforcement officer, he didn’t hesitate to confront a smoker, but he could understand how other riders might hesitate to do so. "The CTA needs its own police force, that’s the truth," Members said. "That needs to be priority, because the security that you're hiring doesn't have much training to deal with certain issues."
Later during the meeting, CTA board chair Lester Barclay said that he had "some concerns" about safety and security on trains and buses, and asked if a CPD representative could attend the upcoming meeting to speak on the topic.
Carter responded by saying that while crime is down on the CTA, and blamed some of the concerns on negative media coverage, he thinks this would be a good idea.
Board director L. Bernard Jakes asked whether it would be possible to restore the CTA police. Carter advised against it, saying that creating a police department from scratch would be a "significant additional cost" and hiring and training officers would take time. "The more [productive] way is to get police department to provide additional resources to our [system], which is why I think it’s important for the department to speak to the board directly," he said."
Barcley asked how long it would take to put together a report that would assess what it would take to bring back CTA police. Carter said he would put the report together, but he couldn’t guarantee it would be ready in time for the August meeting.
Jakes said that he was concerned that, "with the DNC happening and many officers being reassigned, doing overtime," CTA crime response time would get worse. "We’e already having issue with response time as it is."
Union negotiations
Union business manger Brogdon told the transit board that there are three issues that the two sides of the negotiations haven’t been able to move on: wages, workplace safety, and job security. "Our members deserve compensation that reflects the rising costs of living and the dedication they bring to their roles every single day," he said. "We have presented data, made reasonable proposals, yet the response has been inadequate."
Brogdon said that, during negotiations, "we have raised concerns about equipment safety, workload, mental health support. But CTA has not taken necessary steps to ensure our member safety and well-being." He also said the CTA wouldn’t agree to "assurances that their jobs aren’t at constant risk," but didn’t elaborate on what kind of guarantees the union was looking for.
"We're not asking for the moon," Brogan said. "We're asking for what’s fair, just and necessary to maintain a dignified standard of living and a safe work environment. Our members are the backbone of the CTA, and their dedication deserves to be recognized and rewarded appropriately."
A CTA-friendly DLSD?
Last month Better Streets Chicago joined Chicago, Bike Grid Now!, other advocacy groups, and 14 alders in sending a letter to the Illinois and Chicago transportation departments calling on them to rethink plans to simply rebuild DLSD as an eight-lane highway.
At today's CTA board meeting, Better Streets' Podgers said he isn’t happy with any of the five recommended alternatives for rebuilding DLSD currently on the table because they all preserve the route as a highway and "only two of them have any transit priority infrastructure whatsoever."
“We’re not confident [project manager the Illinois Department of Transportation] will be choosing either of those options, and frankly, those options are not particularly great in terms of increasing or improving transit operations along the lakefront corridor," Podgers added
He noted that buses serving DLSD corridor collectively have high ridership, but the current system has weaknesses. There are no direct transfers between routes serving the northern half of the drive, and lines serving the southern half, and reaching intermediate destinations is a problem. "A lot of people are choosing not to take transit when they can, and therefore, we believe there's a high optportunity for growth," Podgers said.
While this isn’t a CTA project, the agency is one of the planning partners. Podgers said that Better Streets Chicago hopes the board will support its call to go back to the drawing board with a more transit-friendly alternative. "We want to make sure that this is something all members of the board are aware of."
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