CHICAGO (WLS) — Union leaders are demanding immediate action to protect CTA employees after a janitor was stabbed to death at a train station last week. The killing has renewed questions about electronic monitoring and fueled calls to revise Illinois law.
CTA labor officials said Monday that the system failed to protect Julian Mobley, a husband and father who worked as a CTA janitor. Prosecutors say the man accused of killing him had repeatedly violated the conditions of his electronic monitoring.
Pennie McCoach, president of ATU Local 308, said transit workers have raised concerns about safety throughout the CTA system for years.
“We have sounded the alarm about safety for years, we have asked and pushed and demanded action, but reality makes one thing painfully clear: whatever is being done is not enough,” she said.
Mobley was stabbed in the neck Thursday at the Damen Green Line station. Prosecutors allege that Chavezz Campbell jumped a turnstile and sprayed Mobley with mace before attacking him. Campbell faces a first-degree murder charge and was wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time, prosecutors said. He had also been cited for repeated curfew violations.
McCoach said the breakdowns in electronic monitoring exposed CTA employees to unnecessary danger.
“If the system was up and doing what it was supposed to be doing, this individual wouldn’t have been on our property. And I’m scared to say how many more is out there that has fell through the cracks that we as transit workers have to deal with because the system is broken,” she said.
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The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is seeking legal changes that would strengthen oversight and accountability for people assigned to electronic monitoring. The Public Defender’s Office rejected that proposal, saying in a statement: “The state’s attorney’s push to make changes to electronic monitoring is not based on data, will not make our communities safer, and would result in a tremendous waste of public resources.”
Union leaders also want Chicago to establish a dedicated transit police force. Federal mandates earlier this year required the city to increase the number of Chicago police officers assigned to CTA duty, replacing private security. Cook County Sheriff’s police also help patrol the system, but union officials say the combined response is still inadequate.
“It’s a shame that we’re standing here today talking about transit safety, a world-class city that can’t even provide safety for its workers that move this city,” said Keith Hill, president of ATU Local 241.
At a court hearing Sunday, the Public Defender’s Office asked that Campbell remain on electronic monitoring. A judge denied the request and ordered him detained until his next court appearance Wednesday.
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