Just got back from vacationing in downtown Chicago (great time!!!) and noticed these guys with yellow vests standing in the middle of intersections acting like traffic cops. My 11 year old son commented that they weren't doing much good and he noticed that the traffic signals were actually better at moving the traffic along. He wanted to know if they were homeless people that were given something to do by the city to make money. I told him I'd check it out on Flyertalk and ran across this thread.

My question is this - several of the TMA workers I saw looked like they were carrying citation pads. Do they have the authority to flag down a car or pedestrian and write tickets?