The Chicago Transit Authority is ending a contract for unarmed private security guards on the mass transit system in favor of spending on other public safety initiatives, including sworn law enforcement staffing, the agency confirmed Monday.
In a Friday letter sent to Chicago-based Monterrey Security, the CTA said funds appropriated for the private security contract had been “exhausted” and that Monterrey’s security services should cease immediately. Effective Friday, Monterrey should “cease all work and limit activities to those necessary for orderly Contract wind-down,” said the letter from CTA vice president of security Kevin Ryan, which the Tribune reviewed.
The CTA’s letter cites a section of its contract with Monterrey that says the contract can be terminated “if no funds or insufficient funds are appropriated and budgeted” by the mass transit agency.
The move comes as the CTA has boosted the numbers of sworn law enforcement officers on its system, adding patrols from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office as well as upping the numbers of Chicago police officers on the system.
“The CTA is strategically strengthening system security by expanding police presence, K-9 units, and crisis response initiatives,” agency spokesperson Catherine Hosinski said in a statement. “Funding previously allocated to unarmed security guards will instead be directed to sworn officers, specially trained professionals and other security resources who are better equipped to help keep riders and staff safe.”
The CTA’s board approved $71 million in contracts for security services from both Monterrey and Inter-Con Security in 2022. The contract terms were to last three years with two funded one-year options for extension.
In 2024, the transit agency’s board approved additional funding of $26 million because the CTA had “significantly increase[d] the number of guards deployed across the system “to address customer and employee safety concerns,” according to a board ordinance at the time.
Public vendor payment records for the security contract indicate the CTA made payments to Monterrey as recently as last month, but had not paid Inter-Con since last year.
Monterrey said in a statement it received notice from the CTA shortly after 6 p.m. Friday.
“We were notified by the CTA that there was no further funding available for the roughly 250 full-time employees who have provided unarmed security services for the CTA’s bus and rail systems, and that we were to cease operations that night,” the statement read
The Service Employees International Union Local 1 had about 160 union members who worked for Monterrey on the CTA, including on the agency’s Red and Blue Lines and in several garages, said spokesperson Bailey Koch.
Employees for subcontractors Kates Detective & Security Agency and Rush Solutions were also impacted, according to Monterrey.
“We are now working with SEIU Local 1 to identify resources, benefits and potential opportunities for these impacted employees and our thoughts are with them during this time,” Monterrey said.
“The CTA’s abrupt decision is devastating for our company,” said William Kates, the owner of Kates Detective & Security Agency. “We provided employment opportunities for dozens of residents from Englewood, Chatham and other underserved areas of the city for this work and they were immediately left unemployed.”
A spokesperson for Inter-Con said the CTA was not currently one of its clients.
The CTA has been under pressure both federally and locally to address crime on its system, and in March released a security plan that boosts CTA staffing hours from Chicago police officers and Cook County sheriff’s officers.
President Donald Trump’s Federal Transit Administration threatened last year to withhold up to $50 million in funding from the system unless it addressed crime and security staffing to its satisfaction.
After rejecting the CTA’s first security plan as “materially deficient,” the feds last month backed off the threat to withhold funds after the CTA announced a new plan it said would boost policing hours on the system by 75%. In December, the CTA also boosted staffing provided by privately-contracted K-9 security teams.
The CTA has said it has seen reduced crime since first upping security in December, saying overall crime was down 9% between mid-December through the end of February when compared with the same time the previous year.
Assaults against transit workers were down 25% in January and 29% in February when compared to the six-month average in the months leading up to December’s security surge, the agency has said.
