CHICAGO () — Chicagoans rely on it every day, yet the nation’s second-largest public transportation system is facing questions about its transparency.
The Chicago Transit Authority has been accused of violating state law by failing to respond to public-record requests and withholding information that should be available to the public.
The concerns come as the CTA faces growing scrutiny over rider safety while working to rebuild public confidence in the system.
When Chicago attorney Conley Wouters encountered resistance while seeking records about a private canine-security contractor used on train platforms across the city, he refused to drop the matter. Instead, he told the ABC7 I-Team that he eventually uncovered records the public had a right to see.
The controversy began with a July 9, 2025, confrontation on the Red Line platform at 69th Street.
A fight involving four men and canine-security handlers contracted by the CTA was captured on video and later went viral after the Facebook account Chitown Crime Chasers posted it.
The footage shows punches being thrown and trash cans used as weapons. A German Shepherd bites the men and handlers in the chaotic encounter, while one handler falls onto the train tracks.
After the video spread, members of the public contacted the CTA to question the training of the dog and its handlers and to demand an investigation.
Those complaints might never have become public without Wouters’ efforts.
“I was motivated to ask for this by what looked to me like mistreatment of one of the canines,” Wouters told the I-Team.
His concern for the animal’s welfare on the CTA platform led to a yearslong effort to learn more about Action K9 Security, the CTA’s private canine-security contractor.
For more than a decade, guards in black uniforms accompanied by muzzled German Shepherds have been a familiar presence on CTA train platforms.
Wouters invoked the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, commonly known as FOIA, which gives the public the right to access government records.
“I filed a bunch of FOIA [requests] to the CTA,” Wouters said. “Namely, what I was seeking was the contract between the CTA and the private security firm, as well as any complaints that they received in any way related to the firm.”
After months passed without receiving the requested records, Wouters took his complaint to the Illinois attorney general’s Public Access Counselor, or PAC.
The PAC is a way for Illinoisans to appeal FOIA requests that are ignored or denied.
After a formal review, the Public Access Counselor concluded the CTA had violated the law, and it was ordered to release the records to Wouters.
“They gave some of the records, but still not all of them,” Wouters said. “A lot of silence… I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and then they just started ignoring it. So, July of last year, I sued them.”
It took nearly a full year after filing his first FOIA request to receive the records he was looking for, including hundreds of complaints filed by riders related to Action K-9 Security.
“A lot of people are concerned about the appearance of the dogs,” Wouters said.
Those records included complaints about the 2025 fight on the Red Line platform. According to the documents, those complaints were “closed” in about 24 hours, with no indication of whether they were investigated.
Action K9 wouldn’t comment on whether the incident was investigated.
In all, the CTA turned over 133 customer complaints involving Action K9 since 2022.
Many focused on the conditions of the dogs, including one from the CTA’s own senior attorney, who wrote, “There is an AK9 unit… with a dog that seems pretty unfit for duty… The dog is muzzled, but it is lunging, growling, and barking at passersby.”
But Wouters said he was surprised by complaints unrelated to the animals.
The complaints ranged in seriousness, from guards accused of not doing their job, to harassment of riders, including one rider that said they witnessed, “security guards cat calling different women.”
Both Action K-9 Security and the CTA declined the I-Team’s requests for an interview.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Action K9 told the I-Team it believes “various complaints were produced that were incorrectly attributed to Action K-9 rather than other private security agencies, and that many if not all of those that may have been affiliated with Action K-9 were unfounded after a thorough investigation.”
The CTA said it “immediately investigates” all submitted complaints, and those investigations may result in personnel being reassigned, but it wouldn’t elaborate further.
Wouters also received a copy of Action K-9 Security’s two-year contract with the city that took effect last year.
Total cost: $89.6 million.
An incidents chart provided by Action K-9 Security to the city shows smokers, loiterers, and fare evaders topping the list of what handlers most often deal with.
“$89.6 million, taxpayer funded,” Wouters said. “It’s important that we know how our tax dollars are being spent.”
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is one of many officials tasked with revamping the CTA’s security after a year of intense scrutiny.
In April, the CTA announced it was ending its contract with unarmed security guards and replacing them with armed Chicago police officers and Cook County sheriff’s deputies.
But Action K9 Security’s contract wasn’t cut off.
This past summer, Dart told the I-Team officials are still evaluating the role of private contractors
“Our radar’s really up on this,” Dart said, “We’re looking at not just the contracts that had previously been given out, but what their purpose was.”
Wouters said it shouldn’t take a lawsuit for the CTA to comply with the state’s public records law.
“If they’re just stonewalling everyone in violation of the laws, then we don’t know what’s happening… I was asking for very simple things: The contract and complaints,” Wouters said. “FOIA is one of- it’s a really important law… it’s one of the most important tools that we have to hold our government accountable.”
A spokesperson for the CTA said it is “committed to handling every FOIA request thoroughly and transparently” and that it has recently updated its process for handling record requests, but it wouldn’t elaborate on what changes it made.
After reviewing video of the 2025 Red Line fight, the I-Team wanted to know more about what experts thought of the training depicted, and Action K9’s certifications.
That part of our investigation airs Tuesday at 6 p.m.
