The costly examination of metra requires transparency

Why did Metra pay a team of external lawyers 1.57 million US dollars to examine his police department?

The McGuirewoods company was hired in 2023 to penetrate anonymous allegations of the worrying behavior and spent more than seven months with the project. The results were not published, but the Tribune new reporting and analysis On 130 pages of lawyers and other documents, more context about behavior within the department offers. The Suburban Daily Herald was the first to report this story in December.

The type of allegations draw an unsavory picture. The symptoms include sexual relationships in the workplace, the harassment of civil servants of female civil servants, racism, special treatment of some civil servants and inconsistency in police policy according to the tribune documents. Of course, we cannot know whether one of these things really happened because Metra does not share the details.

We are also worried about the width of alleged corruption. If these claims are legitimate, the agency has a serious cultural problem that needs to be tackled.

And although some perhaps 1.57 million US cliff.

Remember that Metra officers have also warned the public to prepare for tariff hikes and service abbreviations in 2027 if nothing is done to tackle its financial crisis. In this sense, Metra primarily used external legal advisors when the logical first step is to ask the office of the state inspector of the executive inspector? Metra officers reflected this proposal and found that a separate request from 2022 was attributed to this office to Metra. In our opinion, this excuse is not on patterns.

This is not the first time that the Metra police (a department that some readers may not know) exists. In 2014, a further investigation brought concerns about training the department, excessive overtime and overall effectiveness. Metra published this report in public months after completion.

If the symptoms that this recent investigation triggered prove to be unfounded, the department has nothing to hide. However, if the symptoms are legitimate, the Metra police authority has a lot to explain, especially the taxpayers who have the invoice.

Metra, don't take Illinoisans with you to drive a trip with it. Publish the results of the McGuirewoods examination. And if the report reveals a truth to these anonymous symptoms, create a plan to tackle these internal problems as soon as possible.

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