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In Chicago, the Cook County State’s Attorney is taking a firm stance against rising crime on public transit, specifically the CTA. The message is clear: those committing violent acts on these services face the prospect of detention.
In a seldom-given interview, State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke revealed to the I-Team that a newly assembled task force is actively pursuing and prosecuting crimes on the CTA, with a goal of deterring future incidents.
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During a recent CTA board meeting, Marquettia Johnson passionately called for heightened security measures, questioning the current reliance on surveillance cameras over physical presence. Her plea comes after her husband, Raymond Harrison, was tragically killed in a dispute on the Pink Line just before Christmas.
These violent episodes continue to challenge the transit system and have prompted O’Neill Burke to respond decisively. “While we’ve observed a decline in violent crime across the board, incidents on the CTA have not only persisted but increased significantly,” she explained. To address this, a specialized task force comprising 36 prosecutors and investigators has been formed. The team has conducted training sessions with the CTA, examining their technological capabilities, and has partnered with the CPD, whose advanced technology aids in building strong cases.
“We have seen violent crime drop in every category across the board in double-digit numbers. Where we have not seen a decrease, and actually had a significant increase, is violent crimes on the CTA. So, we created a task force with 36 prosecutors and investigators from all over the office, and we have gone in and done trainings with CTA, taking a look at what their technology is. And CPD has been a significant partner in this as well, and they have a lot of technology that helps us prove our cases,” O’Neill Burke told the I-Team.
Court documents reveal those technologies helped investigators find Pedro Villarreal, the man accused of killing Harrison.
O’Neill Burke says collaborating with CPD and CTA is vital to making the system safer and announced her internal transit crime task force last month. Prosecutors began training at the Strategic Decision Support Center in early March.
SEE ALSO | Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke looks back at her first 15 months in office
“They have gunshot detection technology. They have facial recognition. They have video evidence. So, a lot of it is making sure that we have the relationships to know exactly what is there and what’s possible for us to get when we go in. We ask for detention if somebody presents a danger,” said O’Neill Burke.
That’s what they did in Villarreal’s case. A judge agreed with the prosecutor’s request to detain him for Harrison’s death.
“We ask for detention in every violent crime on the CTA… We’re getting detention in 81% of the cases. That’s up significantly from where it was 15 months ago. And the way that we do that is make sure judges have the fullest picture possible on why this person presents a danger,” O’Neill Burke told the I-Team.
The state’s attorney’s online dashboard tracks each case and shows the increase in violent crime detentions since O’Neill Burke took office.
“There’s two things that deter crime. One is the likelihood of being caught, and the second is the likelihood of being punished. The state’s attorney’s office is in charge of the likelihood of being punished, and we’ve increased that likelihood significantly,” said O’Neill Burke. “If we do not get detention, we ask for a stay away order, which means we ask a judge to order that defendant to not go to that train station or to not use that bus line… And that’s a huge component of making sure the most violent people are not re-traumatizing and re-victimizing people on the same train line, on the same bus line.”
Her approach is straightforward.
“Deterrence is achieved when we send a very strong message that we take these cases seriously. You will be detained and you will be prosecuted. That’s what the prosecutor’s office can do. We can serve as a deterrent to these crimes. A vital part of this task force is to make sure that all of our partners in CPD and CTA know exactly who to reach out to and who to contact and how these cases are progressing,” said O’Neill Burke. “In order to have a safe, vibrant city, we need to have a safe public transportation system. That’s the goal, is to make sure that we are getting CTA crime addressed in a way that makes the entire community feel safer.”
Late last year, the Federal Transit Administration demanded a new safety plan for the Chicago transit system. The feds threatened to withhold millions if better safety measures weren’t implemented. The first plan was rejected and another one submitted to the FTA. Progress on the revised plan is being monitored by the administration.
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