"Chief supports LAPD's absorbing LAX police"

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Bratton Backs Merger
By Jennifer Oldham and Richard Winton
The Los Angeles (CA) Times


Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Tuesday endorsed a merger
of the independent police department that patrols Los Angeles
International Airport with the LAPD for the first time, arguing that a
combined force would make the airport more secure.

"Make no mistake about it, we want to put the airport police under the
control of the Los Angeles police," Bratton told the five-member Police
Commission. 
 
At Bratton's urging, the civilian commission agreed to ask Mayor James
K. Hahn and the City Council to put a measure to combine the airport
police with the Los Angeles Police Department on the ballot. 

Such a plan would require voter approval to amend the City Charter. In
making the endorsement, Bratton has publicly broken with Hahn, who has
urged city officials to reserve judgment until an independent study is
completed early next year. 

"The mayor feels very strongly that he doesn't want to take any position
until the reports are finished, and he has an opportunity to review all
of the information," said Hahn spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman.

The City Council resurrected a decades-old debate over combining the two
forces in May, citing confusion among the multiple agencies that
responded to a false hijacking at LAX on May 3.

The council asked the city's airport agency to hire an expert to study
whether the LAX force has sufficient training and whether it makes sense
to have overlapping police agencies at the airport. 

An LAPD spokesman said Tuesday that the chief would be willing to wait
until the study is complete to move forward with the merger proposal.

After the City Council's action in May, Bratton said though he could see
the merits of merging the LAX police with the LAPD, the political
climate did not support the change. "The reality is that politically
there's no political will to do that right now," he said at the time.


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