Models for Law Enforcement at Airports (2020)

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52 Why Do Airports Change Models? Airports do change law enforcement models, and in some cases, law enforcement agencies are merged. In cases where agencies are merged, multiple benefits are proposed, including reduced costs, better coordination of departmental policy, reduced turnover, and higher general efficiency (City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 2003). Regardless of whether the change of law enforcement models is exchanging one model for another or merging multiple agencies to form a single more streamlined agency, the reasons for changing models have four primary themes: operational improvements, incidents and associated responses, politics, and revenues and costs. Improvements in Operations Merging agencies or services, in particular, appears to be frequently done for the improvement of operations. For example, in 2017, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport consolidated airport police and firefighting operations into a Public Safety Department (Dwyer, 2017). The goal of the merger is to provide public safety officers who can perform any task during an emergency by playing the role of LEO or firefighter, interchangeably (Dwyer, 2017). Other efforts at outsourcing and consolidation are designed to rectify a problem with the recruitment and retention of qualified officers, such as the Wilmington, NC, outsourcing of law enforcement to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office (Weller, 2019). Incidents and Responses There have been many safety and security incidents at airports that prompted changes in the law enforcement model or in the way that airport law enforcement is performed. Some notable examples are the fatal shooting of a TSA agent at LAX in 2013 (Nicas, 2014), the 2017 shooting of multiple bystanders in the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (Bernstein, McWhirter, & Devlin, 2017), and the 2017 passenger dragging incident at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago (Tangel, 2017). While each of these incidents resulted in a thorough review of law enforcement practices at each of these airports, the incident in Chicago produced a thorough reorganization of the Chicago airport law enforcement model, which included removing the word “police” from the uniforms of aviation security officers, reducing officer responsibilities, restructuring required training, and assigning the Chicago Police Department to handle most disturbances at both Midway International Airport and O’Hare International Airport (Jenkins, 2017). Leading up to the incident, Chicago Department of Aviation officers performed the job with the same duties as LEOs, were required to have police training, and were identified by the word “police” on their badges, vehicles, and uniforms (Wisniewski, 2017). C H A P T E R 1 3

Why Do Airports Change Models? 53 In Broward County, FL, the combined tragedies of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the 2017 Ford Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport mass shooting led to a revocation of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office law enforce- ment accreditation (Fedschun, 2019). While loss of accreditation does not necessitate removal of the Sheriff’s Office as the airport’s law enforcement agency, the accreditation allows the agency to defend against legal action and to standardize practices and procedures (Fedschun, 2019). Incidents can also have far-reaching effects, such as those felt as far away as New York City after the 2017 Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport mass shooting. State police were temporarily stationed in New York City airports to protect against similar incidents, and officers are still stationed there today (Jorgensen, Parascandola, & Tracy, 2017). Politics New elected officials may come into their positions with a goal to shake things up, balance the budget, and more. In some of these cases, change for the sake of change may become the directive. In other situations, such as the case of Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, a strict budget-cutting directive comes from a political head, leading to changes in the struc- ture and model of law enforcement in the airport (Schultze, 2008). Revenue and Cost A need to reduce a municipal budget can prompt a consolidation or outsourcing of some or all airport law enforcement. Consolidation may be among various overlapping jurisdictions, such as county police, city police, sheriff’s departments, and state police. Merging law enforce- ment agencies can result in reduced operating costs due to the elimination of redundant administrative costs and facilities (Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2018). Outsourcing includes outsourcing to various types of security providers. For example, Hawaii outsources airport security duties to armed Securitas employees who are given arrest power and work alongside uniformed sheriff’s deputies at some airport locations (State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, 2017). As a second example, the San Jose Police Depart- ment provided law enforcement services for the San Jose International Airport. However, in 2011, the City of San Jose requested a proposal for service from the Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff (Erickson, 2011). This proposal to outsource airport law enforcement was estimated to save the city over $1 million compared to using the San Jose Police Department (Erickson, 2011). More recently, the Guadalupe (California) Police Department was selected to take over law enforcement for the Santa Maria Public Airport to help share expenses and to direct revenue to the general fund (Scully, 2017).