To Cut Crime on the Chicago Transit Authority, Create a Special Task Force

Mayor Johnson's "plan" to address crime on the CTA is embarrassingly amateurish

If you have followed Brandon Johnson’s political career, you would recognize incompetence is a regular feature of his time in public office. A bungling amateur, it should not be too surprising Mayor Johnson has botched his latest attempt at achieving public safety on the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). 

On November 17, 2025, a woman was set aflame on the Blue Line train at the Clark/Lake “L” Station. A grisly crime which the mayor shrugged off as an “isolated incident,” the attack generated outrage over the alleged assailant’s criminal history — 72 prior arrests — and provoked a torrent of criticism of Cook County’s notoriously lenient judges. 

The attack also caught the attention of the White House and drew a stinging admonition from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). In a Special Directive (SD) from the FTA dated December 8, federal officials demanded the CTA take “immediate, measurable corrective actions to reduce assaults on transit workers and passengers and to address unsafe system conditions contributing to elevated rates of violent crime on CTA’s bus and rail system.” 

In response to the FTA’s directive, city officials on December 18 rolled out a new safety strategy in which Chicago Police (CPD) manpower will expand from 77 officers to 120 daily under CPD’s Voluntary Special Employment Program (VSEP). Along with additional CPD, private security — K-9 units — will modestly increase from 172 canine security guards to 188 daily. 

Though Mayor Johnson has consistently declared public safety to be “his number one priority,” his new plan to address security on the CTA is astoundingly minimal. 

A half measure retailed to the public as a means to tamp down on crime on the city’s mass-transit system, there are several reasons the mayor’s fanciful plan to address violent crime on the CTA is wholly insufficient and doomed to fail. First, for reasons which are difficult to explain, the new plan only commits 43 additional CPD and 16 private security guards. While manpower alone cannot be the solution to creating a safer CTA, the addition of 43 officers is entirely inadequate. 

Second, Johnson’s plan calls for increasing the number of canine security guards patrolling CTA stations. A decision which illustrates the mayor’s reluctance to commit CPD to perform duties for which they are trained, private security guards are civilians, possess no legal authority, are unarmed, and have no power of arrest. Aggravating matters, the additional private security involves K-9 dogs. A terrible miscalculation verging on idiotic, security dogs evoke images of Selma, and while useful in some settings, are unsuited for securing mass transit systems. Rather, canine units are most effective for locating missing persons, at crime scenes in the effort to accumulate evidence or in public spaces or buildings to detect firearms, explosives, and narcotics. 

Third, Johnson’s plan relies on police officers enrolling in the Voluntary Special Employment Program (VSEP) to work overtime on the CTA. A part-time force which depends on officers from Police Districts across the city, the mayor’s concept of a safety plan utilizes officers with little or no familiarity with residents or the areas for which they are responsible, particularly the “L” platforms to which they are assigned. For policing to be effective, it is vital for officers to be acquainted with residents, business owners, and the general character of a neighborhood. This overall knowledge of a specific neighborhood — a deep awareness of the streets and its inhabitants — permit officers to understand conditions for the specific area and to swiftly evaluate developments as they unfold. 

Last, and most concerning, the officers who are assigned to the CTA through the VSEP are at fixed posts — where they are visible to their superiors on PODs — to portray an image of action rather than fulfilling police duties. A contrivance to give the appearance of maintaining peace, the presence of police officers is just muscular enough not to be mocked. 

Major felony offenses remain enough of a problem on the CTA to require a response, yet Mayor Johnson has gone ahead with a ridiculous plan which is unlikely to have any measurable impact on crime on the transit system. The conditions on the CTA demand a much stronger response and there are several steps the mayor can take to confront crime and assure the public the CTA is safe. 

For the CTA to return as a safe, functioning transit system, the mayor is best served to direct the Chicago Police Department to create a special task force of no fewer than 100 police officers to patrol the CTA. For any anti-crime strategy on the CTA to achieve success, CPD must deploy the maximum number of officers during off-peak hours — 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. — concentrate their efforts on the Red and Blue Lines, and place their greatest emphasis on platforms at which reported crime was highest. To maximize on time, this task force should hold roll calls at the beginning of the shift at designated CTA stations.

An assignment which requires good, old-fashioned leg work, officers attached to this task force should work in pairs and patrol the station and accompany commuters on trains. Though there are nearly 150 stations across the city, reductions in both service and the number of cars on trains providing service during hours in which there is low demand removes some of the complexities for officers to discern dangerous individuals. 

To accomplish the goal of creating a safer experience for riders on the CTA, it is a matter of great importance officers exercise two vital police powers. Foremost, it is essential officers have the tacit approval from their superiors and support from City Hall to demand non-destination riders leave CTA property or face criminal prosecution. Chicago Transit Authority trains and buses are not dormitories for the homeless. While destitution is not a crime, the CTA is awash with homeless, and the fact remains homeless tend to be offenders awaiting innocent victims traveling on the CTA. 

Second and mutually important, it is crucial for officers assigned to the CTA task force to be empowered to conduct reasonable suspicion searches of CTA riders during their shift. An integral part of policing, a reasonable suspicion search relies on an officer’s articulable but subjective observation and allows a brief stop, and, if weapons possession or a violent crime is reasonably suspected, a brief frisk or pat down. 

Though the notion of a brief frisk is likely to invite criticism from rights' groups for police presumably trampling over civil liberties, the Transportation Safety Administration carries out pat down screenings for prohibited items at both of Chicago’s major airports. Moreover, the Chicago Park District regularly wands spectators seeking entry to Chicago Public League athletic contests held on park district grounds, as do security with every major sports franchise in Chicago for entry into athletic or social events at Chicago’s multi-purpose stadiums.

Mayor Johnson simply refuses to learn from the past 

Chicago has faced outbreaks of crime before. Disruptions of this sort on the CTA, though never great in number, always declined dramatically due entirely to Chicago Police successfully developing a coherent and cohesive strategy to check the threat to transit users. 

When this spate of crime on the CTA emerged, Johnson declined to heed the lessons learned in the past. When faced with the challenge of mounting crime on the CTA, Johnson defied precedent and sought guidance from his band of radical activists guiding him at City Hall. From their progressive gospel came the positively daft idea to increase the number of officers slightly — with restrictions on their activity — and to ratchet up the number of private security attack dogs on L platforms. 

The biggest barrier to having a safer mass transit system in the City of Chicago is Mayor Brandon Johnson. Since Johnson installed his new safety plan, in crimes which followed, a disabled woman was sexually assaulted on the Red Line, two were stabbed as they walked near the Washington/Wabash Station downtown, and, most recently, a man was stabbed on the Blue Line at Grand and Milwaukee. 

The crime problem afflicting the CTA will not simply disappear, nor can it be wished away. As long as Mayor Johnson fails to put forth a real-world plan to fight crime and demonstrates an irresolute commitment to using Chicago Police as a deterrent to crime, conditions on the CTA will continue to worsen, citizens will continue to retreat from using public transit, and those who have no alternative but to use the CTA will be left to fend for themselves.