Crime and the CTA Rapid Transit (Chicago, Golden: college, live, dangerous)

[gomexico]

The Chicago Tribune is featuring an article today which discusses crime on the CTA rapid transit and identifies locations in the system at which the highest rates of crime are reported. These are statistics which the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Transit Authority have been reluctant to publicize.

You can read the article in its entirety by clicking on the link which follows:

Tribune analysis reveals hot spots for CTA-related crimes - chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...941854.graphic

[emathias]

Originally Posted by gomexico

...
These are statistics which the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Transit Authority have been reluctant to publicize. ...

Crime stats are all publicized. It's the job of the CPD to work to prevent and respond to crime, and document a public record of when and where crime happens. It's the job of the CTA to provide transportation. It's the job of the Transit Detail of the CPD to prevent crime on transit and, indirectly, be aware of increases and respond appropriately.

It's not the responsibility of ANY of those agencies to actively put together location reports and publicize them to the press. Creating a big deal about a temporary spike in crime reduces ridership which actually enables more crime. A sustained spike in crime should result in an increase in enforcement to bring it down. Neither scenario benefits from publishing "warnings" about public areas and services. So I'm not sure what you mean by "reluctant to publicize."

This is a particularly bad report because it reports raw numbers instead of numbers as a proportion of ridership. It also provides no context - Roosevelt is one of the busiest stations in the system and encompasses 2 stations really and is in a busy nightlife and tourist and events district. It will have more crime than some local stop in Ravenswood - the real question is whether the per-capita rate really takes it into some dangerous territory. It's also REALLY stupid to attribute a crime to a station just because it's in the proximity of the station. That's pretty irresponsible. Particularly in downtown, proximity to a station is nearly ubiquitous.

In short, methodology on this "report" is total, utter crap. A sociology student who submitted this in a college class would probably get, at best, a C and only do that well because it has a pretty large scope. But the methodology should get an F.

Seriously, if I were the CTA, looking at the Tribune's poor methodology, I'd seriously consider suing them for libel for attributing all crimes near stations to the CTA.

[gomexico]

From the article I linked:

The Chicago Police Department has refused for years to identify high-crime locations on the CTA system, considering it a sensitive issue.

Each of us will, if we're interested in the topic, take from the Chicago Tribune article things we think are of value. Some will find nothing. I find it informative.

[Golden Camel]

Originally Posted by emathias

This is a particularly bad report because it reports raw numbers instead of numbers as a proportion of ridership. It also provides no context - Roosevelt is one of the busiest stations in the system and encompasses 2 stations really and is in a busy nightlife and tourist and events district. It will have more crime than some local stop in Ravenswood - the real question is whether the per-capita rate really takes it into some dangerous territory. It's also REALLY stupid to attribute a crime to a station just because it's in the proximity of the station. That's pretty irresponsible. Particularly in downtown, proximity to a station is nearly ubiquitous.

I'm not sure I understand. If Station X had 100 murders last month, I would call that a dangerous station regardless of whether 1000 or 100,000 passengers boarded there last month. And whether the crime was caused by tourists or locals would be of little concern to me. In fact, I would be glad to know that there were a lot of tourists in the vicinity that were causing (or attracting) crime so that I could avoid the area if I had a choice (or at least demand more police patrols or whatever).

I really don't understand why a larger ridership would make crime more acceptable. And I don't understand why the fact that it was occurring in a tourist district would make me feel safer passing through there than if it were occurring in a residential district.

[j_cat]

Originally Posted by Golden Camel

If Station X had 100 murders last month

...then this would be Detroit in the 70s.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Golden Camel

I'm not sure I understand. If Station X had 100 murders last month, I would call that a dangerous station regardless of whether 1000 or 100,000 passengers boarded there last month. And whether the crime was caused by tourists or locals would be of little concern to me. In fact, I would be glad to know that there were a lot of tourists in the vicinity that were causing (or attracting) crime so that I could avoid the area if I had a choice (or at least demand more police patrols or whatever).

I really don't understand why a larger ridership would make crime more acceptable. And I don't understand why the fact that it was occurring in a tourist district would make me feel safer passing through there than if it were occurring in a residential district.

People might test their luck at a station knowing that 1 in 1,000,000 people are a victim of a crime as opposed to 1 in 100.


Overall it's about 1 out of every 100,000 riders that's a victim of a crime, a majority being theft.

[Drover]

Congrats to the Wilson stop for shedding its title as crappiest stop on the L system.

[BHboston]

One thing that really surprised me about the CTA when I lived in Chicago was the lack of dedicated transit police. In Boston, where I am from and currently live, I see transit police on trains and in stations almost every day. In a decade or more of riding the trains here I have never witnessed a crime or felt unsafe.

In Chicago, I witnessed a purse snatching, people urinating in the blue/red line subways, and countless people walking between cars on moving trains, all with impunity. I know Chicago is a totally different place with different history, issues, etc but sometimes it just felt like no one was in charge/cared on the CTA, which was not always the best feeling on a mostly-empty train at 11 pm...

[Drover]

People walking between cars? Oh no -- it's anarchy!

If it makes you feel any better I got a ticket for that a few years ago. And at any rate, there were probably cops on the trains far more frequently than you realized -- they're almost always plain-clothed.

[BHboston]

Haha, well I do concede it's not the most serious of offenses. (And, if it's something the CTA was really intending to enforce, I always thought it would make more sense for them to just... lock the doors?) Although in the purse snatching incident the group of teens that did it went back and forth a few times, maybe to find the most suitable victim, I don't know. After that I was a little wary of anyone I saw pass through.