CHICAGO (WLS) — In response to escalating crime rates on the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Cook County’s chief prosecutor has issued a stern warning: violent offenses on public transit will likely result in detention.
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, in an exclusive interview with the I-Team, shared that a newly established task force is focusing on prosecuting crimes occurring on the CTA. The initiative aims to deter future incidents by targeting offenders more aggressively.
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“We’ve got cameras everywhere, but where are the people promised to be on the trains?” questioned Marquettia Johnson passionately during the latest CTA board meeting. She called for enhanced security on public transport.
Johnson’s husband, Raymond Harrison, tragically lost his life in a confrontation on the Pink Line just before Christmas. The persistent issue of violent crimes like these has spurred O’Neill Burke to take decisive measures.
“We’ve observed a substantial decline in violent crime across various categories, except on the CTA, where incidents have significantly increased,” explained O’Neill Burke. “This prompted us to form a task force comprising 36 prosecutors and investigators. We’ve conducted training sessions with the CTA and examined their technological resources. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has been an invaluable partner, providing technology that strengthens our cases,” she added.
Court records indicate that these technological advancements were instrumental in tracking down Pedro Villarreal, the suspect accused of Harrison’s murder.
O’Neill Burke says collaborating with CPD and CTA is vital to making the system safer and announced her internal transit crime task force last month. Prosecutors began training at the Strategic Decision Support Center in early March.
“They have gunshot detection technology. They have facial recognition. They have video evidence. So, a lot of it is making sure that we have the relationships to know exactly what is there and what’s possible for us to get when we go in. We ask for detention if somebody presents a danger,” said O’Neill Burke.
That’s what they did in Villarreal’s case. A judge agreed with the prosecutor’s request to detain him for Harrison’s death.
“We ask for detention in every violent crime on the CTA… We’re getting detention in 81% of the cases. That’s up significantly from where it was 15 months ago. And the way that we do that is make sure judges have the fullest picture possible on why this person presents a danger,” O’Neill Burke told the I-Team.
The state’s attorney’s online dashboard tracks each case and shows the increase in violent crime detentions since O’Neill Burke took office.
“There’s two things that deter crime. One is the likelihood of being caught, and the second is the likelihood of being punished. The state’s attorney’s office is in charge of the likelihood of being punished, and we’ve increased that likelihood significantly,” said O’Neill Burke. “If we do not get detention, we ask for a stay away order, which means we ask a judge to order that defendant to not go to that train station or to not use that bus line… And that’s a huge component of making sure the most violent people are not re-traumatizing and re-victimizing people on the same train line, on the same bus line.”
Her approach is straightforward.
“Deterrence is achieved when we send a very strong message that we take these cases seriously. You will be detained and you will be prosecuted. That’s what the prosecutor’s office can do. We can serve as a deterrent to these crimes. A vital part of this task force is to make sure that all of our partners in CPD and CTA know exactly who to reach out to and who to contact and how these cases are progressing,” said O’Neill Burke. “In order to have a safe, vibrant city, we need to have a safe public transportation system. That’s the goal, is to make sure that we are getting CTA crime addressed in a way that makes the entire community feel safer.”
Late last year, the Federal Transit Administration demanded a new safety plan for the Chicago transit system. The feds threatened to withhold millions if better safety measures weren’t implemented. The first plan was rejected and another one submitted to the FTA. Progress on the revised plan is being monitored by the administration.
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