City data shows total violent crime on Chicago’s transit system is on track to hit a five-year high by year’s end, even with full-year 2022 CTA ridership headed for just half of what it was in 2019.
Full-year projections based on the Oct. 30 year-to-date data show Chicagoans can expect 1,027 violent crimes on the CTA this year – higher, even, than in 2018 when combined rail station entries and bus boardings were double this year’s expected 230 million. We’re talking about homicides, criminal sexual assaults, aggravated assaults, aggravated batteries and robberies. Fewer riders and more crime is a recipe for Chicago’s further decline.
To cut CTA crime and street crime, Chicago needs to re-deploy many more of the 5,500 armed city police officers assigned to non-patrol units.
The city has already lost control of its streets to violence-prone “takeover” crews and carjackers. Now, the CTA’s workhouse north-south Red Line trains – and other CTA train lines – are part of Chicago’s ceaseless Wild West movie. Growing CTA crime has been clearly evident since summer. It tells residents and businesses to leave. To disinvest.
Proposed solutions implemented recently haven’t worked well. Unarmed private security guards have not prevented an uptick in CTA violent crime nor have security cameras or supervised canine patrols. The city in theory could go all-in on uniformed ex-con interrupters of CTA violence, who’ve lately been pressing for funds to scale a demo project to full-time. But a new city budget led to no announcements of that.
Thursday, embattled CTA chief Dorval Carter finally appeared before the Chicago City Council and repeated earlier pledges to tamp down transit crime in Chicago. But more words won’t help the CTA turn the corner on escalating violent crime, either.
Crain’s Chicago Business reported that at the hearing Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 2nd Ward said, “I struggle with the idea” of imposing new city taxes to help pay for a planned Red Line extension because “the system does not properly serve its customers today.” Alderman Harry Osterman, of the 48th Ward, said Carter “has to find a way to deal with the safety issue. That is the absolute ballgame. If the CTA is not safe, people will not take it.”
New five-year highs already this year for CTA criminal sexual assaults, homicides
Based on data through October 30, this year’s projected final total of violent crimes on Chicago’s public transit system would include five-year CTA highs for homicides, criminal sexual assaults, aggravated assaults, and aggravated batteries. In fact, through October 30, criminal sexual assault and homicides on the CTA had already exceeded the full year total in any of the four prior years. Robberies on the CTA would end this year higher than any of the four prior years except 2019.
There were just 2 murders reported on the CTA in 2018, and again in 2019, versus 4 each in 2020 and 2021. So far this year there’ve been 9 murders on the CTA, according to the city’s crime database. The year-end projected total is 11 based on data through October 30.
There’ve already been 20 reported criminal sexual assaults this year on the CTA through October, more than in any of the four prior years. The year-end projected total is 24.
And with 257 aggravated batteries on the CTA through October, the year-end run-rate would be 308, versus 229 last year, and a projected five-year high.
Crime is also getting more violent on the CTA. As a percent of all CTA crimes, violent crime grew from 15 percent in 2018 to 29 percent last year. Based on current-year data through October 30, violent crimes are projected to end this year at 28 percent of all CTA crime.
A parade of shootings, beatings, robberies on CTA trains
It’s those day-to-day violent attacks and robberies on CTA train lines that are making Lyft and Uber an increasingly feasible alternative for those who can afford it.
- In August a man was fatally shot outside the 69th Street Red Line station after an argument.
- Also in August a woman was shot in the knee on the Red Line downtown.
- This month a man was stabbed and robbed at the Red Line’s Clybourn station.
- A victim required medical attention after getting beaten and robbed on the CTA green line this month in downtown Chicago at Adams and Wabash.
- On a North Side Brown Line train a CTA passenger sitting in a seat was suddenly punched in the face by a passing man. She got off the train and went to a hospital.
- CWB Chicago reported in September on a 13-time convicted felon who’d been charged and freed on bail for robbery, theft, and identity theft on CTA trains. Set free before trial for these “minor” charges, he was charged again, with two counts of felony theft for pickpocketing on the CTA.
- And at the end of the CTA’s Blue train in suburban Forest Park, police reported in September they’d become overwhelmed by having to provide services for overdosing or homeless riders.
A drop in ridership by half may be one of the very things abetting the rise in violent crime on the CTA. Problems are compounded by ongoing service failures that have left passengers repeatedly frustrated by CTA “ghost” trains and buses. Mobile apps and schedules say they’re moments away but often they don’t show at all.
$3.6B Red Line extension a poor bet, without a CTA violent crime fix
Plagued by rising crime and service failures, the agency is finally – after decades of talk and planning – getting ready for a $3.6 billion extension of the Red Line from 95th Street to the city’s southern border at 130th Street. Property owners in a new near-South Side special taxing district will have to contribute almost $1 billion.
But the Red Line extension will be throwing good money after bad without police to deter and arrest, prosecutors willing prosecute, and judges willing to sufficiently sentence the violent criminals plaguing Chicago’s public transit system.