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Over the last two weeks, at least five people have been shot,
four of them fatally, on or near the rail system, leaving many
workers and riders alike shaken and traumatized by the thought
of boarding a CTA train.
“What I would say to the workers on CTA is to organize and
schedule a meeting with the president of CTA,” Hardiman told The
Center Square. "There should be hundreds of CTA workers to meet
with him and just tell them straight forward ‘if you don't get
this security thing under control basically we're going to go on
strike. Let them know unequivocally, if you don't address this
the proper way we need to hire somebody in that position.”
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 president/business agent
Pennie McCoach adds things have gotten so out of control on the
rails that workers are afraid to report for duty, forcing the
union to have already broached the idea with management of
adding security officers on the system that have the power to
make arrests
As the longtime executive director of Violence Interrupters,
Hardiman insists his crew is ready for action when it comes to
easing tensions.
“I extended another offer to help CTA reduce gun violence and
reduce overall violence on their train systems,” he said.
“There's a need for an extra level of violence prevention
efforts to take place on the CTA. I know for a fact we have a
proven model that gets results and we can board them trains and
help people feel good about riding those trains.”
In the Blue Line shooting that left four people died, police
have charged 30-year-old Rhanni Davis with four counts of
first-degree murder, adding at least three of the victims were
asleep on the train when he opened fire.
Soon after word of the random attack began to spread, CTA
officials revealed the agency is now using Zero Eyes safety
technology that can detect guns on train platforms with the
technology working by sending an alert to CTA security and CPD
via the agency’s existing camera system once a gun is detected
in the station.
Presently, the surveillance is only being used in about 250 of
the agency’s 33,000 cameras, though authorities have been
secretive about which stations as the program remains in the
pilot phase.
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