Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) President Forrest Claypool and Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced that the project to install new state of the art security cameras at "L" rail station stops across the city has been completed six weeks ahead of schedule.

In all, nearly 1,800 additional cameras have been installed at 78 CTA rail stations during a fast-track initiative that was announced in June.

Mayor Emanuel, President Claypool and Superintendent McCarthy spoke at the Clinton Green/Pink Line station, where police recently used footage from newly installed station cameras to identify, arrest and charge an offender responsible for attacking and robbing a woman of her purse in an elevator a block away from the station. The same offender had previously appeared in surveillance footage using a stolen credit card, which connected him to a car burglary near CTA Headquarters two weeks earlier.

"The cameras have caught criminals but also serve as a deterrent, helping to ensure the highest level of security for our transit system," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. "This is not just an investment in our rail system but in our neighborhoods. More security; more stations; more service: the CTA cameras are one part of our re-make of the CTA to modernize it and bring it into the 21st Century."

In the last five months, images pulled from CTA surveillance cameras have assisted Chicago police in the arrest of at least 47 individuals for crimes committed either on or near CTA property. Of these arrests, at least 23 offenders have been identified as participants in multi-offender attacks or crimes; at least 16 individuals have been identified for serial crimes committed on CTA property; and at least 10 individuals have been identified for crimes committed off CTA property.