Airport Police Union Calls For Security Gap Fixes After Last Year’s LAX Shooting

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http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/10/30/airport-police-union-calls-for-security-gap-fixes-after-last-years-lax-shooting/

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Nearly a year after the fatal shooting of a Transportation Security Administration officer at LAX, members of the Airport Police union complained Thursday that little has been done to increase security at one of the nation’s busiest airports.

The union called on the city to implement changes to prevent a repeat of the Nov. 1, 2013 shooting at Terminal 3 that claimed the life of TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39. Union officials said there are still policing and security gaps that make the airport vulnerable to attack – especially the split policing duties between the Airport Police and the Los Angeles Police Department.

“No other airport in this country has split policing like LAX’s dangerously disjointed model of having proprietary airport police unnecessarily supplemented by LAPD police,” according to the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association. “This was on full display post-apprehension of the Nov. 1 shooter when three chains of command, including one by the airport police and one by LAPD, were established. These eventually were merged into one LAXPD command but chaos ensued.”

According to the union, a report completed in response to the shooting faulted the split-policing model and also highlighted underfunding of airport police – in particular the lack of an airport police incident-command-post vehicle. Airport Police staffing has also declined to its lowest level since 2008, according to union officials.

FULL story and video at link.