CHICAGO'S WEST LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- City leaders are encouraging Chicagoans and others to take the CTA to this week's New Year's Eve festivities downtown, and they're pledging to step up their efforts to keep trains, buses and platforms safe.
Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling joined Mayor Brandon Johnson and other city department heads for a New Year's Eve safety and security briefing Monday afternoon at the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, 1411 W. Madison St.
"We will have sufficient manpower on the CTA to ensure that we're doing everything we can to keep riders safe," Supt. Snelling told reporters, without defining "sufficient."
Mayor Johnson sought to reassure Chicagoans that deploying officers on the CTA would not diminish police presence elsewhere in the city.
"When we start talking about the presence on CTA or downtown, the neighborhoods might feel like they're being neglected," the mayor said, while insisting that would not be the case this year.
Acting CTA president Nora Leerhsen said she and her team talk constantly to police commanders about safety plans surrounding big events, including New Year's Eve.
"CTA successfully executes moving people around the city with special events throughout the entire year," Leerhsen said.
The city's already pledged to increase the number of officers on the CTA following a series of high-profile attacks, including last month's burning of a Blue Line rider, that's drawn the attention of the Trump Administration.
The mayor said public safety is always his administration's top priority, and that decisions dealing with safety and security are done independent of any demands from the White House: "Washington does not dictate how we show up for the people of Chicago."
Fares on the CTA will once again be free starting at 10:00pm New Year's Eve, through a donation from MillerCoors.