Train station, offices beef up security

Temporary security enhancements are now in place at Citigroup Center and Ogilvie Transportation Center after a shootout Friday on the 38th floor of the West Loop high-rise.

The Citigroup Center has added security personnel and placed "additional scrutiny in the screening of people" entering the 42-story tower, building spokesman David Hooks said.

Guards already monitor the building's third-floor lobby turnstiles, which employees pass through with photo-ID key cards. Visitors must check in with security and receive a temporary key card. The building's private security force is unarmed, but Hooks said Chicago Police patrols have been making frequent stops.

A partner at the Wood Phillips law firm, whose offices were the site of the shooting, said the firm's partners are meeting in the offices today. "The staff will have the day off," Jeffrey Clark said.

On the ground floor, at Ogilvie Transportation Center, Metra has beefed up the security presence around the commuter hub that serves the north, northwest and western suburbs.

The rail line has dedicated more of its almost 50-person police force to the station and increased the number of armed guards from Securitas, a private security firm Metra hires to patrol its stations, spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.

Security personnel at Citigroup Center, a privately owned commercial office tower occupied by the online travel agency Orbitz, many law firms and federal agencies such as the Justice Department, communicate with the public transportation hub on the ground floor through the Chicago Transit Alert Network. But the two do not share a security force.

bgoldberger@suntimes.com

Contributing: Abdon M. Pallasch