Cook County police begin CTA patrols

Cook County sheriff’s police started riding Chicago Transit Authority trains, and within about 10 days the new patrols were tied to two gun arrests on the Red Line, according to the sheriff’s office and court reporting. One arrest happened on March 31 near 95th Street, and the second happened on April 7 after officers boarded at 69th Street. (cwbchicago.com 1) (cwbchicago.com 2) The first man, Carl Adams, was 40 and already on federal probation from an earlier gun case when deputies say they found a loaded pistol in his backpack after seeing him move between train cars through emergency doors. A judge ordered Adams held pending trial on a felon-in-possession charge. (cwbchicago.com) The second man, Vincent Jones, was 27 and was stopped after deputies heard loud music from inside a train at about 4:50 p.m. on April 7. Deputies say they found a gun with a defaced serial number and that Jones did not have a license to own or carry it, and a judge later released him pending trial. (cwbchicago.com) These patrols were not a random add-on by the county. The Chicago Transit Authority put them in a revised safety plan it sent to the Federal Transit Administration in March after federal officials threatened to cut up to $50 million in funding if the agency did not produce a tougher anti-crime response. (wbez.org) (cbsnews.com) The federal pressure followed a November 2025 attack on a Blue Line train in which a woman was allegedly set on fire, a case that became the event local and federal officials kept pointing to when they argued the transit system needed a more aggressive safety plan. That threat from Washington pushed the transit agency into submitting a second plan after its December response was called inadequate. (wbez.org) (news.wttw.com) The new plan promised a 75% increase in policing hours across trains and buses. It also assigned Cook County sheriff’s police to rail lines for 4,400 hours a month, raised Chicago Police Department transit patrol hours by 34%, and doubled the pool of off-duty city officers available for extra transit shifts to 240. (wbez.org) (cbsnews.com) Chicago Transit Authority leaders also paired the police surge with station changes and social-service programs. The March plan included high-barrier fare gates, fare-card inspection missions, crisis-intervention specialists, violence interrupters, and $1.65 million for 30 shelter beds for unhoused riders. (wbez.org) (cbsnews.com) This is also turning into a multi-agency transit crackdown, not just a transit agency project. On March 25, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke created an internal Chicago Transit Authority task force with 36 prosecutors and investigators and told staff to seek transit restrictions for defendants charged with violent crimes on the system. (news.wttw.com) Chicago officials say overall crime on the system has been falling year over year, but violent crimes on transit rose enough to trigger this federal intervention and local response. The transit agency also said more than 300 train-inspection missions launched in January produced a 15% crime drop at targeted stations. (news.wttw.com) (cbsnews.com) So the immediate story is two gun cases on one rail line in one week, but the bigger change is structural: county deputies are now on city trains because federal regulators forced Chicago Transit Authority leaders to show visible results fast. The next test is whether those extra patrol hours lower violent incidents without simply shifting problems from one station or car to the next. (cwbchicago.com) (wbez.org)