SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Chicago Transit Authority bolstered security on the public transport system Friday, a day after President Donald Trump's administration repeated its threat to withhold $50 million in federal funding if it didn't deliver a more aggressive crime-cutting plan.
The Chicago Police Department increased its daily presence on the city's transit system by 56%, from 77 to 120 officers. Private security K-9 units will jump 10% to 188.
A day earlier, the Federal Transit Administration delivered a letter to CTA President Nora Leerhsen demanding a more comprehensive plan for reducing crime than the one it submitted last Monday, chiding the CTA for failing to target significant drops in each of the next six months and ordering that a planned security “surge” be implemented immediately.
The administration demanded a crackdown after 26-year-old Bethany MaGee was doused with gasoline and set afire on a city L train in November. Federal prosecutors have charged 50-year-old Lawrence Reed of Chicago with a terrorist attack, which carries a maximum life sentence.
In Thursday's letter, the administration said the CTA's plan failed to meet federal demands that it set targets for fewer assaults of staff and riders for each of the next six months and to increase security. It said CTA monthly goals for limiting assaults on staff and riders were identical for January through March.
“By proposing flat targets for the entire first quarter of the Dec. 15 plan, CTA has failed to set targets showing reductions for ‘each’ month as ordered,” Federal Transit Administration chief Marcus Molinaro wrote.
Molinaro added that the agency “requires full implementation of the security surge” so that “the impact of increased law enforcement presence should be immediate” and evident in crime-cut targets going forward.
The CTA has 90 days to satisfy the federal government's demands or go without funding.
CTA spokesperson Catherine Hosinski would not comment on ongoing discussions with federal officials, but she noted that the transit system's budget approved in early November included $5 million for increased security.
The surge increases the presence of Chicago police officers who volunteer for the duty on their days off. It is in addition to regular police patrol of CTA property.
Chicago police officers “are at the core of CTA’s multilayered security strategy,” Leerhsen said in a statement. “We expect the additional police and K-9 presence on our system to further increase security visibility.”
According to police, the number of violent crimes reported at CTA locations in 2025 through Thursday was 933, down 18 from 2024.
A statewide transit overhaul signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday pumps $1.5 billion more into public transport annually and includes long-range safety and security initiatives.
FILE - A train pulls into the Clark Street and Lake Street Blue Line stop, Nov. 18, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
When recruits were repeatedly punched and tackled during a role-playing exercise at the Texas game wardens academy last year, they were taking part in a longstanding police training tradition that critics say should be retired.
By the end of the day, at least 13 of the cadets reported injuries. At least two concussions. A torn knee. A bloody nose. A broken wrist. Two would need surgery. One would resign in protest. Another quit even before the drill.
A state investigation later found nothing wrong with the drill, which its supporters say is intended to teach recruits to make good decisions under intense physical and mental stress. The experience on Dec. 13, 2024, may have been traumatizing for some at the Texas Game Warden Training Center in Hamilton, Texas, but it was not unique.
Since 2005, drills intended to teach defensive tactics at law enforcement academies have been linked to at least a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries, some resulting in disability, according to a review by The Associated Press.
The drills — frequently referred to as RedMan training for the brand and color of protective gear worn by participants – are intended to teach law enforcement recruits how to defend themselves against combative suspects. They’re among the most challenging tests at police academies. Law enforcement experts say that when properly designed and supervised, they teach new officers critical skills.
But critics say they can put recruits at risk of physical and mental abuse that runs some promising officers out of the profession. Academies have wide latitude in running such exercises, given a lack of national standards governing police training.
Here are some takeaways from AP's report.
A string of tragedies across the nation in recent years has brought new attention to the details of curricula at law enforcement academies.
In August, 30-year-old Jon-Marques Psalms died two days after a training exercise at the San Francisco Police Department Academy. He suffered a head injury while fighting an instructor in a padded suit.
An autopsy found his death was an accident caused by complications of muscle and organ damage “in the setting of a high-intensity training exercise.” His family has filed a legal claim against the city and hired experts for a second autopsy.
In November 2024, a 24-year-old Kentucky game warden recruit died after fighting an instructor in a pool to the point of collapse, video obtained by AP shows. William Bailey’s death was ruled an accidental drowning due to a “sudden cardiac dysrhythmia during physical exertion.”
A year earlier, a Denver police recruit had both legs amputated after a training fight that his attorney called a “barbaric hazing ritual” left him hospitalized. An Indiana recruit died of exertion after he was pummeled by a larger instructor, and a classmate was disabled after fighting the same man.
Academies have discretion to design training within state guidelines, and AP found the drills take many forms at local police, county sheriff and state departments. They’re sometimes called “combat training,” “Fight Day” or “stress reaction training.”
Some recruits have to ward off several assailants at once. Others fight a series of instructors, one after another. Some academies intentionally use larger, more skilled instructors. The stated goals are generally the same: to use skills learned in the academy to fend off or subdue assailants and to never give up.
Recruits and instructors wear protective gear to cushion their heads from blows. But there are no uniform safety guidelines, including whether academies must have medical personnel on site.
One of the recruits injured last year was Heather Sterling, a former Wyoming game warden who had moved back to her home state of Texas to continue her career.
Sterling had been a defensive tactics instructor in Wyoming before enrolling in the Texas academy, and she was concerned when she learned about the so-called four-on-one drill.
During the exercise, cadets faced a barrage of attacks from four instructors playing the role of violent assailants. Cadets would have to kick and punch a bag held by an instructor and try to fend off attacks for 90 seconds or more.
Sterling thought the scenario was unrealistic. She said she had never been ambushed on the job, and she would be able to use her firearm or other force if that happened in real life.
Video shows that Sterling was punched seven times in the head in less than two minutes, and the last blow knocked off her wrestling helmet. She was also thrown to the ground.
Sterling said she had a pounding headache, and later drove herself to get medical treatment. She was diagnosed with a concussion.
Sterling passed the drill but resigned from the academy in protest. Now she's speaking out in the hopes of bringing change to practices in Texas and elsewhere.
“I’m worried that someone is going to get killed,” she said. “This is a poorly disguised assault.”
Heather Sterling hikes along the Green River, Aug. 11, 2025, near Daniel, Wyo. (AP Photo/Amber Baesler)
This photo provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows new graduates during the 67th Texas Game Warden and State Park Police Officer Commissioning Ceremony on May 30, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Sonja Sommerfeld/Texas Parks and Wildlife Department via AP)
In this still image from video obtained by The Associated Press, Heather Sterling is hit in the head by one of her instructors, who is acting as a violent assailant, during a four-on-one training drill, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Texas Game Warden Training Center in Hamilton, Texas.
