Why aren't there CTA police? (Chicago, Arlington Heights: crime, buses, moving)

[deadplant]

So I randomly took the Metra back from Oglivie to Irving, and I had a thought: isn't it strange that the Metra has its own full police force but the CTA just has "security." They're both run by the RTA. Does anyone know how this came to be?

[snoylekim]

Ummm.. there is a Transit Unit within the Chicago Police Department .. There has been for years ...

[Thepreacherswife]

Metra's police are employed by the railroads that run the routes, which have long had their own detective divisions. Not sure if there are Metra police for the routes that are Metra-owned.

[Avengerfire]

The CTA used to have its own police force. Now, as mentioned above, there is a CTA unit in the CPD. I believe there were too many "issues" with the CTA police much like the CHA police had. Both were abolished in favor of the CPD.

[ofcjim40]

Rail Road Police are actually some of the oldest police services around. Some are actually Federal Police like Amtrak that goes across the country. Metra has their own Officers because the service crosses so many jurisdictions and counties. There would be no other way to Police it. Since CTA for the most part is self contained within Chicago, it only makes sense to have it be patrolled by CPD. Intel, etc. starts to get lost and problems develop when there are too many agencies operating inside one area. Also, as evidenced by even some towns and villages trying to disband their PD's, simply put Police Dept's aren't cheap. Or look at Homer Glen that pays Will County essentially to have Will Co Deputies be assigned to Homer and basically be their Department. Manpower, facilities, equipment, etc. adds up. Then there are further issues for when a Police Department is created for such a specific purpose. For those old enough to remember the CHA Police. This was basically a private police force created to patrol the Chicago Housing Authority. Basically the only reason this was even able to be created was because it was Federal housing. Long story short, too many cooks in the kitchen can be bad.

[emathias]

Another reason the CPD took over policing the CTA was to help with budgeting requirements. The City of Chicago actualy directly contributes very little to the CTA's operations budget - less than 1% I believe.

However they have contributed more in other ways, and one of those other ways is through taking over the policing aspect. By doing that instead of giving the CTA more money, the CTA had less operating expense, which made it easier for them to meet the state-mandated percentage of operating expense that has to come from the farebox.

Budgetary tricks like this are fairly common, and in this case actually made sense from an operations standpoint, too.

[chitown85]

CTA has used Chicago Police for years. CTA does cross several suburban jurisdictions and Chicago Police do have full police powers in all of those suburbs. METRA Police only patrol METRA owned property and a certain distance from that property in all suburbs (and city) it serves. The railroad police are responsible for the lines (co jurisdiction) outside of METRA's jurisdiction such as cargo trains.

[ofcjim40]

Originally Posted by chitown85

CTA has used Chicago Police for years. CTA does cross several suburban jurisdictions and Chicago Police do have full police powers in all of those suburbs.

By the same token the Suburbs have the same power in Chicago too. But if a crime happens on a CTA bus in the Burbs, it's up to the suburb to handle. CPD is not coming out for it. It's not like a CTA bus is a sovereign piece of Chicago moving through the Burbs. Where the crime happens is who handles it. On my old PD that bordered Chicago, I had to deal with CTA issues before. Didn't matter if it was 10 feet inside our jurisdiction, we handled.

[chitown85]

Oh yea, the suburbs bordering Chicago have contiguous jurisdiction and can even effect traffic stops in the city. That's interesting that the suburban police handled the CTA situations. Now that you mention it, I have never seen Chicago Police Transit Unit in Skokie, Wilmette, Evanston, Oak Park, etc near the L stops or CTA bus stops.

[ofcjim40]

I think what throws some people off about the CTA is the fact of Chicago being in the name. It's not like it's a company owned and run by Chicago, I think some people don't understand that. As an example, Pace bus is based in Arlington Heights. If instead they called it Arlington Heights Bus Service, that still wouldn't give AHPD authority passed what they already have. The RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) basically heads and financially runs Metra, CTA and Pace. I guess in theory RTA could form their own Police, but there would be little reason to. They can barely run a transit company, much less run a PD. Lol. I'll have to do some research as to Metra PD. My guess is it was formed because like I said earlier, railroads have a long history of having Police service. Also trains are far more difficult to board than buses, so it's important to have protection already on the rail. Also train yards and stations are far larger than bus depots. Also the fact that they go through so many jurisdictions. But let me look into it a bit more because some of what I wrote is assumption.