CTA deploying violence interrupters, mental health clinicians on trains this fall

Dozens of non-law enforcement personnel trained to intervene in violence and mental health crises are expected to start riding trains this fall on the CTA Red, Blue and Green lines.

The Chicago Transit Authority board on Wednesday approved a $10 million, yearlong Crisis Intervention Safe Ride Specialist Pilot designed to complement the recent boost in security and police on trains and buses.

The specialists, drawn from contracts with four local groups, will don colorful vests while they provide mental, behavioral, and drug-use treatment services to those who need it, Nora Leerhsen, the CTA's acting president, told the board.

The largest of the four contracts, worth $6.6 million, goes to Metropolitan Family Services, the group that performs community violence intervention across the city. That group will provide 20 daily community violence intervention specialists on the Red Line, 7 days a week from Roosevelt to Lake Street in two shifts spanning from noon to 3:30 a.m., CTA's chief of security, Joe Bird, told board members.

Leerhsen said the pilot program was timed on purpose to complement the agency's "multi-layered security strategy" that included adding more cops and sheriff's deputies, helping drive a 30% decline in crime over last year.

These new non-police personnel will help unload some of the work that has recently been addressed by police.

"This is an incredibly historic moment for CTA to be launching these programs ... following months of notable increases in law enforcement," Leerhsen said.

The remaining three contracts went to groups that will supply mental health, homelessness and substance abuse recovery intervention specialists to the Green and Blue lines.

One of those groups, Maywood-based Housing Forward, has a nearly $1 million deal to provide specialists on the Green Line from Harlem to Central Avenue, Molly Poppe, CTA's chief innovation officer, told the board. They will be staffed Monday to Friday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., and on Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., she said.

Healthcare Alternative Systems will supply bilingual behavioral health care to the Blue Line's northwest branch, from O'Hare to Logan Square, Poppe said. Two teams of two to three people will service those trains from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The fourth group, Street Samaritans, has a $1.2 million contract to supply two three-person teams on the Blue Line's western branch, from Austin to Forest Park, Poppe said. Each team will have one licensed mental health clinician and two crisis intervention specialists trained in de-escalation.

This is the first time the CTA has officially employed violence interrupters, not counting the unsanctioned Violence Interrupters, led by Tio Hardiman, who have patrolled the southern branch of the Red Line.

Some members of the CTA board, which will be replaced next month by Northern Illinois Transit Authority board appointments , questioned how the violence interrupters would be trained to either call or not call police for backup.

"Their first goal ... is de-escalation... and offer resources," Bird said. "When it rises to criminal activity, the threat of violence, then 911 and police should be notified. But not before that. They should act independently."

A CTA spokesman said the specialists are expected to be deployed by the fall.

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