CTA president says security remains "front and center" amid safety concerns
Despite a drop in crime on the CTA, safety concerns continue for many riders, and with brutal cold expected Friday through the week, is the system prepared?
Chicago relies on the mass transit system to get around, but there's some resistance to that reliance with safety concerns continuing to plague the CTA.
In November, a man set a woman on fire on a Blue Line train in downtown Chicago, leaving her critically injured. Lawrence Reed, 50, has been arrested on federal terrorism charges in the attack.
On Jan. 10, a man was stabbed to death while sleeping on a Blue Line train in the Loop, and prosecutors said his attacker recorded the crime on his cell phone. The next day, a man was seriously injured in a stabbing on a Red Line train at the 69th Street stop on the South Side.
CTA Acting President Nora Leehrsen spoke at a City Club of Chicago event on Thursday about the work she's done to engage riders and workers about safety concerns, and detailed the decrease in violent crime over the last year.
"As a daily rider who rides with her children, this is important to me," Leehrsen said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has acknowledged there's more work to be done to improve safety on the CTA.
Last month, CTA officials announced more police officers and private security guards would be deployed on the system, but it wasn't enough for the Federal Transit Administration, which rejected that safety plan, giving the CTA a mid-March deadline to meet the Trump administration's demand for an improved safety plan or risk losing $50 million in federal funding.
Leehrsen insisted "passenger safety and security is front and center for CTA."
"It is our number one priority. We have made strides in this area over the past year that are unprecedented. Our partnership with the Chicago Police Department is deeper than ever. We have a series of missions that we conduct in a targeted way with them," she said.
Those missions are especially timely, given Chicago's unhoused population floods the system for shelter for a place to stay warm when temperatures plummet. With sub-zero temperatures expected on Friday, how is the CTA preparing to handle what's coming our way?
"At CTA, we prepare for months for the winter months in terms of our vehicle and our infrastructure prep, and our partnership with social service agencies is absolutely front and center," she said.
CBS News Chicago has repeatedly requested one-on-one interviews with Leehrsen since she was named the agency's acting president last February to ask more questions about safety concerns on the CTA.
