(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The founder of the group Violence Interrupters says he and a couple dozen volunteers will be riding the CTA on New Year’s Eve to try to make sure it stays safe.
It was this past April when the Violence Interrupters first organized outreach on the CTA, riding the trains for several hours.
Now, the group’s president, Tio Hardiman, and a mostly male contingent of unarmed volunteers say they’ll ride the rails from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve.
Hardiman says in past ride-a-longs, one passenger voluntarily gave him a switchblade. Another, a would-be robber, surrendered his butcher knife.
“That’s a positive story. It’s not a whole lot of stories, but it’s a few,” he said.
Hardiman says his group will mostly ride the Red Line from 95th to downtown, which he calls a “hot area.”
The CTA notes that police and hired security personnel are along the rail system: “Each of those individuals is highly trained and experienced, and best equipped to address the CTA system.”
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