Cook County sheriff says dedicated CTA police force may be needed for safety improvements

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A surge in Cook County Sheriff's Police patrols on Chicago Transit Authority trains is producing hundreds of arrests and citations, and Sheriff Tom Dart says a dedicated transit police force may ultimately be necessary to sustain long-term safety improvements.

The ABC7 I-Team rode the Green Line this week with sheriff's officers during one of their patrols on the West Side and beyond.

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Lt. Keith McCarter said even minor violations can lead to major discoveries.

"Sometimes the small things leads to big arrests," McCarter said. "We've stopped people for smoking and found firearms on an illegal firearms. So, we found people passing through to train cars and found illegal narcotics on them," he said.

The patrols are part of a broader factfinding effort led by Dart, who said the CTA may need its own law enforcement entity.

When asked whether that could mean a separate police force for public transit, Dart responded, "That's a great question," adding, "I have initially come around to the notion that you really need one entity because you just you need to have accountability." He said , "A dedicated force is probably going to be what's needed."

The initiative stems from a transit funding law passed last year. New patrols began at the end of March, deploying 50 sworn officers per day to areas with higher crime trends, including CTA's Red and Blue lines.

According to the sheriff's office, the effort has resulted in more than 200 arrests, including individuals with active warrants and weapons, along with hundreds of ordinance citations.

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During one patrol, officers detained a man on the Red Line who appeared to be rolling a joint. After a search, officers said they recovered a loaded firearm. "What is this?" an officer asked in video reviewed by the I-Team. "That's my 38..." the man replied.

He was charged with aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.

In another case, officers approached a man smoking what appeared to be cannabis on the 79th Street Red Line platform. Body-worn camera video captured officers saying "firearm recovered" after finding a gun in his waistband.

He is now charged with possession of a firearm by a repeat felony offender.

Dart said the conditions riders have faced for years are unacceptable. "I was just blown away at how it had been somewhat normalized, the vast majority using it to get back and forth where you were just having to deal with it, you're just being subjected to this. This was your normal and that's wrong. I mean, that's a failure on all of our parts that that was ever allowed to get there."

Roughly 20 minutes into the I-Team's ride, officers detained another man for switching rail cars, a CTA ordinance violation.

After running his name, McCarter said, "radio's going to come back and confirm he had a valid warrant." The man was taken into custody.

The sheriff's office is also deploying social service teams to assist riders experiencing mental health, housing, or substance-related challenges. "We respond on scene and connect individuals to any sort of service they may need," said Meghann Cherie of the Treatment Response Team. "So whether it's going to a hospital, getting linked with a psychiatrist, rehab, things like that."

The stepped-up enforcement comes as the CTA faces federal threats to pull millions in funding and as the state mandates reforms under last year's transit funding bill. The sheriff's office said it has spent $3.1 million on the patrols since late March. Funding for any new transit policing entity remains unclear.