SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Chicago Transit Authority bolstered security on the public transport system Friday, a day after President Donald Trump's administration repeated its threat to withhold $50 million in federal funding if it didn't deliver a more aggressive crime-cutting plan.
The Chicago Police Department increased its daily presence on the city's transit system by 56%, from 77 to 120 officers. Private security K-9 units will jump 10% to 188.
A day earlier, the Federal Transit Administration delivered a letter to CTA President Nora Leerhsen demanding a more comprehensive plan for reducing crime than the one it submitted last Monday, chiding the CTA for failing to target significant drops in each of the next six months and ordering that a planned security ''surge'' be implemented immediately.
The administration demanded a crackdown after 26-year-old Bethany MaGee was doused with gasoline and set afire on a city L train in November. Federal prosecutors have charged 50-year-old Lawrence Reed of Chicago with a terrorist attack, which carries a maximum life sentence.
In Thursday's letter, the administration said the CTA's plan failed to meet federal demands that it set targets for fewer assaults of staff and riders for each of the next six months and to increase security. It said CTA monthly goals for limiting assaults on staff and riders were identical for January through March.
''By proposing flat targets for the entire first quarter of the Dec. 15 plan, CTA has failed to set targets showing reductions for ‘each' month as ordered,'' Federal Transit Administration chief Marcus Molinaro wrote.
Molinaro added that the agency ''requires full implementation of the security surge'' so that ''the impact of increased law enforcement presence should be immediate'' and evident in crime-cut targets going forward.
The CTA has 90 days to satisfy the federal government's demands or go without funding.
