Cook County state's attorney's office training new prosecutor task force to focus on CTA crimes

The Cook County state's attorneys office is training some of its staff to bolster prosecutions of crime on the CTA.

A new internal transit crime task force will train more than 30 prosecutors and provide guidance on seeking court orders to restrict defendants from accessing parts of the CTA, according to State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke's office.

The prosecutors will receive enhanced training on CTA video evidence, serve as liaisons with Chicago police and CTA on transit-related cases, and track data on transit crimes.

As part of the training, the assistant state's attorneys will visit the Chicago Police Department's Strategic Decision Support Centers to better understand the city's surveillance network.

Burke also issued an internal directive Wednesday calling for prosecutors to request restrictions on felony defendants from accessing specific CTA locations in cases when pretrial detention is denied or not an option. The directive also gives prosecutors discretion to request location restrictions in misdemeanor cases, but instructs prosecutors not to ban any defendant from the entire CTA system.

Burke's office says it is aware of the uptick in crime on transit, and is making prosecuting these crimes a priority.

"The goal of this task force is to make sure that we are effectively prosecuting these cases," says Anastasia Harper, deputy chief assistant state's attorney for policy and external affairs.

The idea is that this group of attorneys will pass on their knowledge from the training, such as contact info or prosecution strategies, to other members of the office, she said.

Training began earlier this year and is expected to continue through mid-April, she said.

Burke's initiative comes as the Trump administration backs off its $50 million funding threat to the CTA over its stubbornly high crime rate.

Local elected officials have accused the U.S. Department of Transportation of unfairly picking on Chicago and other Democratic-run cities. But reporting from the Sun-Times shows violent attacks on the CTA are the highest they have been in a quarter century. The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that the assault rate on the CTA is double that of peer agencies.

The Federal Transit Administration compelled the CTA to revise its safety plan earlier in March after rejecting the CTA's December plan to boost CPD's volunteer overtime transit patrol program. On March 10, the CTA said it was boosting police office presence on transit by 75%, with the help of sheriff's deputies who are now patrolling trains. The plan also hinted at collaboration with the state's attorneys office, but did not provide much detail.

The plan also calls for CPD to create a unified team of detectives covering only transit crimes within the next two months, according to a copy of the plan provided to the Sun-Times through an open-records request.

Separately, the Department of Transportation has frozen $3 billion in federal grants for CTA projects, including the Red Line extension to 130th Street, while the Department says it analyzes the CTA's contractor hiring practices. The CTA last week sued the Department of Transportation over the funding freeze, saying that work on the Red Line extension may soon halt if they money stays frozen.