Sheriff says taxpayers owed safety on public transit

(The Center Square) – Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says crime is down on Chicago-area public transit, but the people in charge owe taxpayers, workers and riders a lot more.

Dart recently spoke at the City Club of Chicago and said state lawmakers asked him to spearhead the reinvention of public transit’s security and safety component.

The sheriff said a preliminary report is due to the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority board by December.

“We really, really, really owe the taxpayers, my God, the employees of public transportation and the passengers of it, we owe them a lot more,” Dart said.

Dart said public transit crimes are down for the fifth month in a row.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, sponsored the $1.5 billion transit funding bill signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last December.

Villivalam said lawmakers would continue discussing ways to improve on safety until there are zero incidents.

“It’s not very useful for me to tell someone that experienced an issue of safety ...