Almost every Chicago Transit Authority train -- nearly 800 of them -- now has a security camera to help abate crime on the rails, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool announced Wednesday.
The expansion of the camera program coincides with a reduction in crime for the first three months of the year, Emanuel and Claypool said.
The pair credited the cameras to a drop in crime across CTA platforms, including a 38.5 percent drop in robberies, 44.4 percent in aggravated battery and 23.3 percent in theft.
Crime dropped by about 22 percent on buses, 22 percent on trains and 31 percent at rail station, they said.
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Claypool in February said the more than 3,600 cameras installed on the rail system at that time had already led to the arrest of at least 14 offenders in the eight previous months.
The CTA's newest rail cars come equipped with cameras while older models were being retrofit.
