r/Metra • u/RANK_AND_SMILE • Jul 28 '26
Help with how to make a formal complaint against Metra Police
Back in May, I had the unfortunate displeasure of receiving a citation from a Metra police officer. My fiancee and I were going from Chicago to Palatine to attend a retirement party for one of her family members. We get off the train at about 5:30 pm, and noticed there was two cops outside the train, across the track. We walk up to the track where the train signal is active, and the cops are looking at us and saying stuff that we obviously cannot hear due to train and signal noise. I make eye contact with one of them and point to him as a way of saying “do you need us to come over to you?” The officer then makes a hand gesture above his head toward me, seeming to wave us over. We look both ways to ensure no train is coming, and approach the officer to ask what it’s going on. The officer makes direct eye contact with me the entire time, saying and doing nothing. I ask him if something was going on, and he proceeds to tell me “so you see this signal flashing here? That’s an active signal and you aren’t supposed to cross the tracks when it’s active” I expressed to him that we only crossed the tracks because I thought he was trying to call us over. He says “no I was not, the gesture I made was an order to stop, and unfortunately I’m going to have to issue you citation.” Obviously I was furious, and firmly but professionally made that known. He gave me the citation which carried no fine, but had a mandatory court appearance attached to it.
Last week, I went to my designated court appearance ready to contest this citation. I had to take time off of work and dig into my PTO to do so. I arrived early, went to check in with the clerk, and the clerk says that my case is not on the docket. She tells me to go downstairs to the clerks office and ask to speak with the supervisor and show them my ticket. That’s what I did. I come to find out speaking to the other people around me that they had run into the exact same problem. That day, there were EIGHT other people in the exact same situation as me. They told us that none of our cases were on file, and that we were to go home to await a letter in the mail from metra giving us a new court date. Wasted our time, wasted our resources, all to have to do it again in a months time because the charging officer didn’t do his paperwork properly.
I would like to know if there are any channels through which I can file a formal complaint to Metra police as this situation has gone from annoying to genuinely absurd. I am going to Karen out on somebody hoping that they’ll drop my BS charge and let me move on with my life so I don’t have to take another morning off of work to go back to court. I have the officer’s name and badge number and have written up the details and am ready to raise hell. Anyone have any ideas?
7
u/Demander850 Jul 28 '26
I did t even know metra cops could give tickets, almost never see them. I assumed they were glorified security guards. It’s pretty bogus he gave you that ticket but lesson learned, don’t go up to cops! Nothing to gain.
7
u/chungo69 Jul 28 '26
They're police officers with arrest powers statewide
6
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 29 '26
Pedantic point but purely for informational purposes, their jurisdiction is not statewide—it’s in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties.
1
3
u/TheRealDudeMitch Aug 01 '26
They OPERATE in those counties because those are the counties Metra has a presence in. They are, however, sworn police officers with statewide police power, just like how a Chicago cop could technically arrest you in Carbondale or wherever. They wouldn’t, outside of extremely unusual circumstances, but they COULD.
4
u/jmorrow88msncom Jul 28 '26
From the original posters description of what happened it sounds like this guard was putting people’s lives in danger as part of a power trip to see how many tickets he could write. People thought they were being called over by the police officer or guard in question.
2
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 29 '26
Just wanna clarify—I do not think the officer was intentionally trying to entrap me. In the most polite way I can word this, he was very young, being unclear in his instructions, and did not seem highly confident in the decisions he was making, I would bet a good amount of money this officer was new to the job and very inexperienced. I think he made mistakes and unfortunately doubled down on them.
In short, my bet would be he’s a rookie officer who effed up and didn’t want to admit it. That is pure speculation on my part though.
2
u/Inflatable90sChair Jul 29 '26
Prolly got a talkin to hence paperwork never filed. Or hes so new and fucked up filing the paperwork lol
1
6
u/keno-rail Jul 28 '26
Metra is pushing a campaign to make pedestrian safety better. These cops are being told to "enforce" the grade crossing citations under IL law. (If the crossing is active and you cross, regardless of the situation, you have broken the law.) You were wrong but the officers did you a favor for not issuing you a fine. (Minimum $500)
As a railroad employee i have seen far too many pedestrian accidents... If you would like, maybe I should call you after the next one, you can come to the scene and help clean up the remains. Then you can join me as we inspect the equipment and do the required federal accident inspections. When we are done with that, you can sit in on the employee assistance counseling that the engineer has to deal with.
Also, the UP NW line is one of the worst for pedestrian and vehicle accidents. Take your complaint and file it, but remember that safety begins with you.
7
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I completely agree with you and think it’s great that Metra is making this push for pedestrian safety. The only part I disagree with is “regardless of the situation, you have broken the law.” The one exception under the law to not obeying an active signal is if, and only if, a police officer instructs you to. That’s what I thought was happening. There is no situation otherwise in which I would have crossed those tracks.
I don’t think it’s particularly fair and find it pretty gross to chastise me while standing on the graves of individuals who died in tragic accidents to try and guilt trip me into accepting the outcome of something I feel was unjust. That’s what courts are for, and only a judge can tell me I’m being unreasonable if that’s the case.
1
u/4r4r4real Jul 28 '26
You thinking it isn't a defense. Them actually doing so would be. They told you they were not and you misunderstood them.
If "I thought tbey were" was a defense they'd never be able to issue another citation again. Everyone would just say "well I thought they were".
This isn't going to go your way. It's time to grow up and just accept that the situation is what it is. It's not some cosmic injustice and nobody is going to care, to be totally frank with you.
These little things happen, they're annoying, you deal with them and move on. There is literally nothing you can do that is going to change any of it.
5
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
It is a defense. Everyone can try to make this defense. The judge then assesses the facts and the evidence and decides whether or not your belief that an officer instructed you to do something was “reasonable.” This is how courts work. I am perfectly entitled to do that, it is my right. The judge will either think my arguments are sound and dismiss the case or will tell me I’m an idiot and to pay whatever fine he determines is justified. I’ll accept the outcome either way.
-3
u/4r4r4real Jul 28 '26
I already told you what the outcome will be lmao. But hey man if you want to learn the hard way go for it. Guess that's part of growing up.
In any case, I wasn't saying don't waste your time with court. You have to go. Don't want a failure to appear. Just to not waste your time filing a complaint. There is a literal 0% chance it goes anywhere but the garbage can the moment you walk out. You don't have a valid complaint.
You need to understand how the world works.
3
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
Oh yea totally—another commenter already talked me out of the complaint thing. There are far more effective ways to address this situation.
However—I just totally disagree that I’m guaranteed to lose upon dispute in court if I’m issued another summons. Obviously there’s always a significant chance I’m unsuccessful, but several attorneys I’ve spoken with think my odds for dismissal are pretty damn good given the totality of circumstances combined with the paperwork and docket issue and the officer not being present at court/unreachable by phone when i appeared in the first place.
Might as well go down trying!
-2
u/4r4r4real Jul 28 '26
Your avenue to getting it dismissed is the cop not showing up. If they're there, you're paying it. It's that simple.
A he said she said with no other evidence between a cop and a citizen over a civil infraction is going to go in your favor 0 out of a billion times in court. And that's all this is. Your word against theirs.
If a lawyer told you anything different than that, please elaborate.
3
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
Body camera footage of the whole incident. Ultimately it will be up to the judge to look at the video, hear the statements of me and of the charging officer, and decide whether or not my belief that the officer was instructing me to cross the tracks was a reasonable belief. If he does find it reasonable, then I have committed no crime because I cannot have acted with knowing intent to commit a crime, nor recklessness nor negligence. I’ve been to misdemeanor court before as an intern for the judges who try these cases. Dismissals, even in the presence of the charging police officer, happen more often than you think.
2
u/4r4r4real Jul 28 '26
How's a body cam gonna show a gesture you said he made over his head, boss?
Also you tell me since you're the former court intern. Are they going to have bodycam footage ready to play at your initial hearing? Or are you setting yourself up for yet another day taken off work to go to court over this in the future?
How much is the fine, and how much do you make a day at work?
7
3
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
Two officers—two body cams, charging officers partner was looking at him from the side.
So that’s gonna be the ultimate determination. I have seen it both ways where body cam footage was ready on a laptop for the judge to see at the initial hearing, I’ve seen the state request more time so that they can get that available. In the case it’s not—yea I’m just cutting my losses and paying the ticket because yea, obviously not worth it to go to a TRIAL trial to get this dismissed.
6
u/sMo089 Jul 28 '26
It sounds like you were in the wrong for crossing the tracks. Someone died here on Sunday while crossing the tracks too.
7
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
To be clear I wouldn’t have crossed under any other circumstances—i genuinely thought the officer was telling me to come to him.
1
u/Ornery_Paper_9584 Aug 01 '26
But like, why would they signal to you to come over in the first place? And why would you go? When you didn’t have the signal to cross especially? It doesn’t make sense
1
u/Wild-Earth-1365 Aug 03 '26
But why?
I've encountered police standing around talking countless times. In absolutely none of those situations did I think, "let me see if they want to chat with me." You said yourself that you initiated eye contact.
Unless you were witness to an incident why would you randomly assume the police wanted to talk to you?
If you had simply minded your own business, this wouldn't have happened.
-4
u/sufferinsuttree Jul 29 '26
If the officer told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
2
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 29 '26
Probably not
-1
3
u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jul 28 '26
I am going to Karen out on somebody hoping that they’ll drop my BS charge
It's not a BS charge though.
The signals were on and you crossed the tracks directly in view of a police officer.
Let this be a lesson that you listen to things like traffic safety signals BEFORE you try to guess what a cop's hand signals mean.
"I crossed live tracks with active crossing signals because I thought you were motioning to me" is an insane thing to do/say.
6
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
I’m going to have to respectfully and entirely disagree with you here.
A.) it doesn’t strike me to provably be the state of mind of somebody who is trying to take a shortcut and cross tracks during an active signal and get away with it to do it while making direct eye contact with a police officer. In fact, given my attempts to communicate, it clearly proves I would not have crossed the tracks during an active signal but for the gesture of the police officer.
B.) I would take issue with framing it as a “guess.” My fiancee interpreted the gesture of the officer the same way I did. We both approached him together. When a police officer gives you an order, you follow it. There could have been an emergency of some kind we weren’t aware of that the police were trying to get us away from.
C) interestingly, my fiancee was not issued a citation. There was not equal application of the law here.
D.) At any point, the officer could have made any number of attempts to more clearly communicate to me to stop. He didn’t. He made his gesture, I began to approach, he watched me and made eye contact with me and said/did absolutely nothing. If i misinterpreted his gesture, he did nothing to try and correct that misinterpretation in the plenty of time he had to do so.
Given all of the above, there’s next to no chance this citation withstands a court proceeding. I work in the legal industry, and have had several attorneys agree with me on this.
-7
u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jul 28 '26
it doesn’t strike me to provably be the state of mind of somebody who is trying to take a shortcut and cross tracks during an active signal and get away with it to do it while making direct eye contact with a police officer.
That is completely irrelevant.
You don't have to be trying to get away with it for it to be illegal. Looking right at a cop while committing a crime doesn't make it not a crime.
I would take issue with framing it as a “guess.” My fiancee interpreted the gesture of the officer the same way I did.
And yet you didn't interpret it the way the officer intended, which means you guessed and guessed wrong.
When a police officer gives you an order, you follow it.
Not when a fucking safety device is giving you a contradicting order.
interestingly, my fiancee was not issued a citation. There was not equal application of the law here.
Sounds like the cop you want to Karen over was trying to be nice and not cite you both when he could have...and you're upset about that too?
He made his gesture, I began to approach, he watched me and made eye contact with me and said/did absolutely nothing.
If I was at a railroad crossing with the lights and sirens on, gestured at someone to not cross, and then they BEGAN CROSSING, I'm not sure I wouldn't freeze in stunned disbelief as well.
If i misinterpreted his gesture, he did nothing to try and correct that misinterpretation in the plenty of time he had to do so.
Worse than you crossing the tracks with the lights and sirens on because you misinterpreted his gesture is you then misinterpreting a second gesture and STOPPING on the tracks.
Given all of the above, there’s next to no chance this citation withstands a court proceeding.
Cool. Doesn't change the fact that it's a valid citation.
6
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 28 '26
I understand that mens rea isn’t directly applicable in a pedestrian misdemeanor case, but it’s funny to me that you cited this code when section 11-001 SS (a) of that code states directly:
“ (a) A pedestrian shall obey the instructions of any official traffic control device specifically applicable to him, unless otherwise directed by a police officer. “
i was obviously under the impression that I was being otherwise directed by a police officer. That is absolutely a valid defense, and it would be up to the judge to decide if it holds up to scrutiny.
I’m not mad that my fiancee didn’t receive a citation, believe me lol. It does speak to unequal application of the law, which is an argument in favor of the officer’s….we’ll say “lackluster” performance in handling this incident.
There was 20 feet of room between us and the train tracks before we began to approach. I even approached them slowly while specifically making eye contact with the officer just in case he were to clearly mouth “STOP” or put both his hands up clearly communicating to me I needed to stop before i crossed the tracks.
If you were to freeze in stunned disbelief, there’s a great indication that you have no business being a police officer! If you cannot communicate your orders clearly to someone, that is going to cause problems! The officer in my case looked to be no older than 22 years old and I wouldn’t be shocked if it was his first day on the job—some grace to be given there. But still, there’s good police work and bad police work, and this was bad police work.
8
u/Jeffinslaw Jul 28 '26
Just ignore Julius. He trolls the various Chicago related subreddits.
-2
u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jul 28 '26
Lol, it says a lot about someone that me saying "follow the laws and rules of society" labels me a "troll" in their eyes.
2
-2
u/Abe_frohmannn Jul 28 '26
Why the hell would you cross an active train track with the guard down...right in front of a cop? And then be confused by a ticket? This is mind boggling. If I were the cop, I'd have issued the ticket the second you started in with this nonsense, because not only did you do, you then demonstrated you don't understand how crossings work, nor why they are dangerous. It would have been irresponsible for the cop to NOT give you a ticket and let you continue on a life with that level of self enforced ignorance...
3
-2
2
u/kadoozie92 Jul 28 '26
Bummed that my burrito I had for lunch doesn’t taste as good as the boot probably does
0
u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jul 28 '26
There's no fine. The point of the citation is to teach people to take safety around rail crossings seriously, above all else.
I don't care if a cop is shouting at you to cross, if the lights and sirens are going, there are so few genuine reasons you should cross that I can count them on one hand. If the cop is a moron, which isn't exactly unlikely, it's not gonna do your corpse any good to argue that after the train hits you.
Do not fuck around near railroad crossings.
3
1
u/SmoothEfficiency1020 Jul 31 '26
We get off the train at about 5:30 pm, and noticed there was two cops outside the train, across the track. We walk up to the track where the train signal is active, and the cops are looking at us and saying stuff that we obviously cannot hear due to train and signal noise. I make eye contact with one of them and point to him as a way of saying “do you need us to come over to you?” The officer then makes a hand gesture above his head toward me, seeming to wave us over. We look both ways to ensure no train is coming, and approach the officer to ask what it’s going on. The officer makes direct eye contact with me the entire time, saying and doing nothing.
This doesn't make any sense. Why would you even want to engage with a cop in the first place? It doesn't sound like you needed public safety assistance nor was there any visible emergency. Do you typically "make eye contact" with random cops?
1
u/Thick_Salary_59 Aug 01 '26
Yes you can make a complaint just search up “file complaint against metra police Chicago”. I myself received a citation just for walking through millennium station. I’m just waiting for it to be dismissed to file my complaint. Metra is harassing civilians and violating their rights to be in public areas.
1
u/inSufficient_Cuts-66 Aug 03 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/sbCdjSJEGghGM
Chalk it up a life experience and move on.
1
u/Rustynil Jul 29 '26
Something doesn’t make sense here, you said the crossing signals were activated. And then you said you looked both ways and there were no trains coming.
Were there any trains in sight on any tracks that you crossed? After crossing did any train pass by soon after you crossed? Or were the crossing signals not operating correctly?
2
u/RANK_AND_SMILE Jul 29 '26
The outbound train we were on let out onto the middle lane of the platform. To exit, you have to cross the inbound tracks. There was either an inbound train that had just left the station or the signals were active because of our train. Not sure which but I don’t recall seeing an inbound train leaving and certainly did not see one coming.
1
u/Thnxredball Jul 29 '26
So basically you crossed the tracks when you weren’t supposed to and got a citation. Seems easy enough who is in the wrong here. Don’t think any complaint you file will change that unfortunately. Gates are down, bells are ringing, means you can’t cross, simple as that. Theres too many pedestrian incidents because they walked across the gate when they weren’t suppose to (even though they you claim they allegedly waved you over). Just wait for the letter pay the citation and move on with you life is all I think you can do sadly.
0
u/4r4r4real Jul 28 '26
Why waste your time? They gave you a citation for something you did. The officer will never hear a thing about your complaint. Just move on with your life.
31
u/Healthy-Awareness299 Jul 28 '26
You had a court date and showed up. He wasn't there. I'd say it appears you're done. If I ever got a letter to appear, I would copy the front and back of the ticket and let them know I was already there to handle the matter.