"Merger of LAX, City Police Eyed Again"

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Merger of LAX, City Police Eyed Again
Response to hijacking scare on May 3 prompts council to look into joining
the departments.
By Jennifer Oldham
The Los Angeles (CA) Times


The City Council moved Tuesday to resurrect a decades-old debate over
merging the independent police department that patrols Los Angeles
International Airport with the LAPD, citing confusion among multiple
agencies that responded last week to a potential hijacking at LAX. 

After the incident, law enforcement officials at LAX quarreled over whether
an airport police SWAT team had violated protocol when it boarded Singapore
Airlines Flight 20 on May 3 after the jet transmitted a computerized hijack
alert. The alert was a false alarm.

Problems arose on the ground after several federal agencies failed to inform
local officials about the possible hijacking until half an hour before the
flight arrived.

Questions over how LAX police handled the incident prompted city leaders to
suggest for the second time in as many years that merging the Los Angeles
Police Department and the airport police would eliminate communication
snafus and costly duplication of resources. 

The airport police work to prevent crime at LAX; the LAPD's role there is to
book suspects and investigate crimes after they occur. The airport police
force employs 309 sworn officers and 298 unarmed security officers at LAX.
The LAPD has 52 officers stationed there. 

City Councilman Jack Weiss introduced a motion Tuesday that calls for the
city agency that operates LAX and the LAPD to present a report analyzing the
response to the Singapore Airlines incident to the council's Public Safety
Committee in 30 days. Six council members, a majority of the committee,
signed Weiss' motion.

The motion asks the airport agency to hire an expert to study the LAX police
department's level of training and its capabilities, as well as the costs
and benefits of having overlapping police agencies at LAX. It also asks the
city attorney to report to the Public Safety Committee on what actions are
required to combine the two departments.

"I want to see the airport police consolidated with, and put under the
command of, the LAPD," Weiss said in an interview. "This motion is the first
step toward making that a reality." In addition to Weiss, those signing the
motion included Greig Smith, Cindy Miscikowski, Antonio Villaraigosa,
Bernard Parks, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel.

Weiss was one of several city leaders who made a similar suggestion after a
fatal Fourth of July shooting at LAX in 2002 that left three dead, including
the Egyptian gunman, and several wounded. The proposal to combine the
departments failed to gain momentum later that year after it was opposed by
Mayor James K. Hahn and the Airport Commission.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said last week that even though
he could see the merits of merging the LAX police with the LAPD, the current
political climate did not support the change.

"The reality is that politically there's no political will to do that right
now," he said, adding that it's his impression that Hahn does not support
consolidating the two departments. 

Hahn said on Tuesday that city leaders should review whether the departments
should be merged. "He agrees with Weiss that protocols have to be reviewed
and reexamined," said Elizabeth Kaltman, a spokeswoman for the mayor's
office. 

Airport officials defended the need for a separate police force at LAX,
saying LAX police receive specialized training necessary to drive on the
airfield, communicate with the Federal Aviation Administration control tower
and perform other duties unique to the airport.

"Airport policing and city policing is entirely different," said Michael
DiGirolamo, a deputy executive director at the city's airport agency.
"Airport policing is very proactive and city policing is reactive."

Completing a merger of the two agencies would not be easy: According to the
City Charter adopted by voters in 2000, such a plan would require an
amendment to the charter and voter approval.

City officials have tried several times in the last decade to merge the
departments. The airport police were established in 1946 and given full
authority to patrol the airport in 1968, airport officials have said,
because the LAPD didn't have the resources to watch the airfield and write
traffic citations.


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