How Chicago has grappled with crime on the CTA over the last 60 years

The Chicago Transit Authority is no stranger to danger.

Dating back to at least the 1960s, headlines in the Sun-Times spotlighted high-profile crimes on the system and the city government's response.

Every decade or so, another series of stories reported a rise in crime — and the mayoral administration's attempts to resolve it.

In 1967, Mayor Richard J. Daley responded to a series of CTA slayings by calling for cops on every train and station.

That didn't happen.

But Daley disbanded CTA's security force that patrolled trains and buses and replaced it with Chicago police officers — a change that remains to this day.

Jump to 2026: The federal government is threatening to cut millions in funding from the CTA if it doesn't improve its security program after a series of high-profile crimes.

The CTA says it has increased the number of officers patrolling trains, but the federal government says it’s not enough.

Take a trip back through the Sun-Times archives to see how the city has responded to high-profile transit crimes:

1960s: Daley puts cops on trains

"Fear on the CTA" was a front-page banner headline in the Sun-Times' Sept. 5, 1967, issue.

The first of a three-part series examined the rise of assaults and robberies on the transit system. The reporters concluded that CTA security was understaffed and inadequate.

"The evidence indicates that the CTA views its passengers as so many parcels to be delivered from one point to another. If they are damaged along the way, a claim card may be filled out," the reporters wrote.

In response, Richard J. Daley called for Chicago cops to patrol every train and station, day and night. The city wound up deploying around 200 officers, in addition to CTA's security force that patrolled the system.

That police transit force remained in place, replacing the CTA's. Six months later, the police superintendent claimed the increased patrols had tamped down crime and resulted in 1,700 arrests.

Crime was still a problem the next year, in 1968, when the Sun-Times reported a string of bus driver robberies. The city responded by assigning 300 officers to patrol buses in a similar crackdown.

1970s: Transit security aides proposed

Transit crime grabbed headlines again in 1978 after the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Rita L. Hopkinson at Oak Park's Austin Avenue L station. Mayor Michael Bilandic responded by proposing to add 100 "transit security aides" to the CTA.

A CTA union official blasted the plan as not enough. And there's no report of the aides ever being deployed. After the slaying of a bus driver the same year, Bilandic ordered a review of CTA security to avoid a walkout of CTA personnel.

1980s: CTA security force disbanded

Mayor Jane Byrne disbanded the CTA police in 1981, accusing the force — which at that point only patrolled CTA garages and rail yards — of not doing their job and allowing drug sales at the properties.

Later in the decade, crime began rising again and prompted Mayor Harold Washington in 1987 to deploy 100 moonlighting cops to patrol buses.

1990s: Conductors cut from trains

Facing deep federal funding cuts in 1997, the CTA began to get rid of its conductors on the Red and Blue lines. These were employees who rode trains in addition to the motormen who pilot them.

The Sun-Times editorial board wrote in March 1998: "[T]he absence of conductors combined with the new crime statistics only strengthen the perception among nervous riders that our transit system is not as safe as it should be."

2010s: More cameras, more crime

The CTA finished installing 3,600 security cameras at train stations in 2013, but crime increased on the system. The CTA defended its record by saying the chance of a crime at a station remains small.

2020s: A fiery attack

Rising crime against CTA passengers following the COVID-19 pandemic prompts agency head Dorval Carter Jr. to reinstate canine patrols in 2022.

After a 26-year-old woman was set ablaze on the Blue Line last year, the federal government is threatening to withhold funding if the CTA doesn't improve its safety plan to its liking.

The CTA said it was increasing the number of CPD officers working overtime on its volunteer transit unit in December. But the Federal Transit Administration said it wasn't good enough and gave the CTA a March 19 deadline to submit a new safety plan — or the FTA would withhold up to $50 million in funding.

The CTA has said it will submit an updated security plan by the deadline.