Emanuel says new CTA security cameras installed ahead of schedule
Mayor Rahm Emanuel
(CHICAGO) – The CTA now has a new message for riders: smile for the cameras.
In an early Christmas present to CTA riders, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Transit Authority President Forrest Claypool and Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy today announced that the project to install new security cameras at ‘L’ stops across the city has been completed six weeks ahead of schedule.
Nearly 1,800 additional cameras have been installed at 78 CTA rail stations during a fast-track initiative that was announced in June, according to Emanuel.
“The cameras have caught criminals but also serve as a deterrent, helping to ensure the highest level of security for our transit system,” said the Mayor, who spoke at the Clinton Green/Pink Line station, where police recently used footage from newly installed station cameras to identify, arrest and charge an offender responsible for attacking and robbing a woman of her purse in an elevator a block away from the station.
Emanuel has a 1990s Clintonesque penchant for the “real people” backdrops, even crime scenes.
In the last five months, CTA surveillance cameras have helped police arrest of at least 47 individuals for crimes. Of these arrests, at least 16 individuals have been identified for serial crimes committed on CTA property.
“These new cameras have been instrumental in helping to solve a number of crimes since we began installing them in June – including three murders that took place away from CTA property as well as a string of serial robberies, one involving a shotgun that happened on CTA property,” Claypool said.
“Shotgun robbery” on CTA property? If Claypool continues to report that type of news, riders may just abandon the CTA to gang bangers and their buddies.
Since June, the Chicago Police Department’s Public Transit Unit has arrested 123 individuals and issued nearly 300 citations for minor offenses and 316 contact cards.
