"Police come up short after Orlando airport patrols"

Saturday, July 19, 2003

Police come up short after airport patrols
By Melissa Harris
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel


When terrorists struck the World Trade Center, the Orlando Police Department
rushed to protect travelers at Orlando International Airport and beefed up
patrols there for more than a year.

Thirteen months later, the police department mailed a bill for $1.2 million
to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority for the additional services.

Now the authority is asking the city to prove it.

For more than three months, city and airport authority auditors have been
combing through time sheets and overtime slips to justify the costs, which a
year before the Sept. 11 attacks were only $140,000.

"It's like receiving a credit-card bill at the end of the month," said Bill
Jennings, executive director of the aviation authority. "We have a
responsibility to verify those numbers. I don't consider it a problem, but I
also don't just write out a check based on what they're telling me."

After the airport authority and police department come to terms on the extra
costs, airport officials will send a portion of the bill to the federal
government. But it's unclear how much help the Transportation Security
Administration will offer.

"They can only get reimbursed when local officers are performing a federal
duty like standing over a screening checkpoint or anything behind that
line," said Melissa White of the National League of Cities. "If they're
doing something like perimeter or parking-lot patrolling, that's considered
a local responsibility."

Orlando isn't the only city in this predicament. Since Sept. 11, airports
around the country have paid more than $450 million for heightened security,
but Congress has appropriated only $175 million for reimbursement.

And federal assistance to local governments and airport authorities squeezed
by homeland security costs will continue to decrease, a trend that White
calls "horrible."

Broward County's extra sheriff's presence at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood
International Airport cost the county about $1.92 million in the year
following Sept. 11, 2001. San Jose, Calif., spent an extra $575,000.

Although TSA officials say security will not be compromised, Congress is
slashing the agency's budget from $5.98 billion in 2003 to a proposed $4.82
billion in 2004. And the TSA has cut 3,000 jobs and expects to eliminate
3,000 more by Sept. 30.

The changes are visible.

Immediately following 9-11, National Guard troops stood at security
checkpoints. Later, local law-enforcement officers replaced them, with the
federal government agreeing to pick up part of the tab.

Now the federal government is not requiring police officers to stand guard
at all -- at a savings of $500,000 per day to the federal budget.

In Orlando, those cuts have eliminated seven officers on overtime pay from
the airport's police staff, but OPD has decided not to abandon the two
checkpoints.

Where two officers once stood, now there is only one.

"We're basically back at pre-9-11 police security levels," said Lt. Danny
McCoy, who is stationed at the airport. "But we did not eliminate officers
at the checkpoints. We preferred to have a presence there."

Once the alert level rises from yellow to orange, however, officers will
return to the airport on overtime pay possibly without future federal
reimbursement.

Police Chief Mike McCoy raised concerns to Orlando's City Council during
budget workshops last week. At the meeting, McCoy warned that if the
department were not reimbursed, its overtime budget next year would be
aslarge as it was last year.

City budget officials blamed Sept. 11-related police overtime for $1 million
of the city's $11.5 million deficit in 2002. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said
he is going to try to make sure that does not happen again.

"I'm sure there's some sticker shock on GOAA's part," Dyer said.

"But next year we're going to actually budget for what we think the overtime
will be."

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