Cook County prosecutors launch new task force to address violent crime on public transit

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced a new task force Monday that will bring together officials from a swath of local, state and federal agencies to discuss how to improve safety on public transit.

The group will convene monthly to analyze violent incidents that have happened on or near public transit systems and work to bring charges.

“The task force mission is clear: promote public safety on transit systems by working in collaboration together,” Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said at a news conference.

The task force will include representatives from Metra; Pace; the Chicago Transit Authority; the Chicago Police Department; the Cook County sheriff’s office; the U.S. attorney’s office; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Administration; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Two months into a security surge, CTA leadership boasted last week that violent crime was decreasing on the transit system. However, a Sun-Times analysis found serious attacks remained historically high.

On Monday, O’Neill Burke touted that violent crime on public transportation had dropped by 22% compared to May of last year.

“But that is not good enough,” O’Neill Burke told reporters. “This is not a job accomplished moment. In order to make this system as safe as possible, we need to continue to expand our work, so that everyone feels safe on public transit.”

The regional transit task force builds on the internal transit crime task force her office unveiled in March to bolster prosecutions of crime on the CTA.

That task force set out to train more than 30 prosecutors on how to track data on transit crimes, review CTA video evidence, and serve as liaisons with Chicago police and CTA on transit-related cases.

“That was so successful that we said we need to expand this to the entire region, and that’s where the regional transit task force came from,” O’Neill Burke said.

The regional transit task force is set to meet for the first time next week.