CTA to add crisis intervention, community violence prevention teams

By Talia Soglin | Chicago Tribune (TNS)

CHICAGO — New teams of crisis intervention and community violence prevention workers will soon roam portions of the agency’s Red, Blue and Green rail lines.

The CTA plans to spend $9.6 million to fund the teams over the course of a one-year pilot program.

The teams will be composed of workers trained in de-escalation, crisis intervention, mental health, and in first aid like CPR and Narcan administration, the CTA’s Chief Innovation Officer Molly Poppe told CTA board members Wednesday. They will all wear branded uniforms, the CTA said.

The CTA’s board of directors approved contracts with several nonprofits for the teams of what the CTA is calling “safe ride specialists” at the agency’s monthly board meeting.

It was among the final actions taken by the current iteration of the CTA’s board, which will be replaced in just a few weeks pursuant to statewide transit funding and reform legislation that mandates a significant shake-up of the governing bodies that oversee the Chicago area’s transit systems.

The crisis intervention pilot program comes amid ongoing conversations about how to best address crime and quality-of-life issues like smoking on the CTA — as well as how best to help people who are unhoused or experiencing mental health crises who seek shelter on the city’s transit system.

Those issues played a prominent role in transit reform conversations last year and have continued to be a focus of transit leaders as the region gets ready to transition to a new system of transit governance — with more than $1 billion in expected new revenue available to it annually.

The teams of specialists are expected to be at work on the rail system in September, according to the CTA.

The launch of the new program comes after the CTA significantly increased law enforcement presence on the system after the administration of President Donald Trump threatened last year to withhold millions in federal funding from the system unless it did so.

Transit and law enforcement leaders have cited significant decreases in crime on the system following that boost in law enforcement hours, which includes officers from the Cook County sheriff’s police.

FBI-classified serious crimes on the portion of the CTA within city limits are down about 29% when compared with last year, according to Chicago police data.

Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen touted the results of the agency’s security efforts Wednesday.

“We talk a lot about our multilayered security strategy, our dynamic security strategy,” she said, noting the increase in law enforcement decrease in crime. “We’ve layered on another layer here today. And it’s not just one type of resource, it’s several.”

The biggest contract under the CTA’s new safe ride program is slated for the Metropolitan Family Services nonprofit. The group will get up to $6.6 million to fund 20 community violence intervention specialists on the portion of the Red Line downtown between the Lake and Roosevelt stations.

The violence prevention workers will “engage proactively” with young people on the system and “serve as a positive presence, building a rapport and trust on the system,” said Joe Bird, the CTA’s chief security officer. They will work the system seven days a week between 12 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.

The other contracts funded under the pilot program will go to the homelessness organizations Housing Forward and Street Samaritans as well as to mental health and substance use group Healthcare Alternative Systems.

Teams staffed by those groups will work on the CTA’s Green Line between Harlem and Central avenues; on the Blue Line’s O’Hare branch between Logan Square and O’Hare and on the Blue Line’s Forest Park branch between Austin and Forest Park.

Also Wednesday, the CTA’s board approved additional funding for an existing program in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services.

That program, dedicated to assisting unhoused people who seek shelter on the CTA, helps fund outreach work on the CTA’s Red and Blue lines as well as shelter beds set aside specifically for people who shelter on the CTA. The agency expects the program to cost up to $4.2 million annually, the agency said. Board members approved the program through the end of 2027 with an option to extend for an additional year.

Despite police data that shows a sustained decrease in CTA crime, the agency continues to take heat on safety.

During the public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting, Pennie McCoach, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 — which represents CTA rail workers — slammed the agency over safety, calling its current security measures “inadequate.” McCoach’s comments followed the June killing of CTA worker Thomas Kevin Barlow, who was shot and killed outside of a South Side rail maintenance facility.

Wednesday’s board meeting was the CTA board’s last regularly scheduled meeting before their terms expire on Sept. 1 pursuant to the transit legislation.

At least two current CTA board members, including its current chairman, attorney Lester Barclay and Michael Eaddy, a pastor, will serve on the new iteration of the transit board. Both were appointed to serve on the new CTA board by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The board will also see some new faces. The mayor’s third CTA board pick is Dee Atkins, chief of community engagement and equity at mental health and substance use organization Thresholds.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who gets two appointees on the new board, named Tom Kotarac — a current board member of the nearly defunct Regional Transportation Authority — and Ann Kalayil, associate vice president of facilities and construction at Columbia College Chicago.

Gov. JB Pritzker, who will appoint the board’s remaining two members, has yet to announce his picks.

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