The Chicago Transit Authority announced the installation of nearly 500 new security cameras

Additionally, the agency debuted a new coffee table book and Chicago Architecture Center tours focused exclusively on art and architecture in CTA stations.

In the last year, CTA and Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) installed nearly 500 cameras in and around rail stations along the Red, Blue, and Brown lines as part of a multi-faceted, collaborative effort to further improve public safety. Four hundred of these are HD cameras as part of its Safe & Secure program — a $33 million, multi-year investment funded by the Mayor’s innovative ride-hailing fee.

Safe & Secure will add 1,000 new cameras and upgrade more than 3,000 older-model cameras throughout the system to the latest-generation high-definition. The program also includes new lighting, repairs, and enhancements to safety at all 145 CTA rail stations. New cameras will also be installed at more than 100 CTA bus turnaround locations, and video monitors will be added to CTA rail stations to aid personnel in monitoring station and customer activity.

The agency also unveiled "Elevated: Art and Architecture of the Chicago Transit Authority" — a new book celebrating and chronicling the extensive collection of public art and significant architectural contributions across the nation’s second largest transit agency. Elevated, CTA’s first-ever collection of art and architecture projects.

In conjunction with the book, CTA has also partnered with the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) to create two new, ‘L’ tours that showcase select CTA station art and architectural details featured in the new book. These new tours, one covering Chicago’s South Side and the other the North Side, will be offered from the CAC in early 2019. The new tours will join the popular, current CAC ‘L’ tour Elevated Architecture: Downtown ‘L’ Train.