Protecting the Rights of First Responders Since 1982
It’s time to stop adding confusion to police response at airports by haphazardly throwing non-airport-specific police into major airports to “support” our mission. Let’s start with the facts: Basic education and training is an important foundation for all police officers. AAAPO airport police graduate from law enforcement academies and are certified officers in their jurisdictions.
This week, work began on a new $1.6 billion 12-gate concourse at LAX, which is part of the airport’s more than $14 billion Capital Improvement Program. The concourse, set to be completed in 2019, will include 12 new gates in a five-story, 750,000-square-foot building attached to the Tom Bradley International Terminal via a 1,000-foot tunnel. Over the last several years, the airport has expanded massively, both in physical space and passenger loads, and it is continuing to grow.
Some may categorize the work of a cop as one of the most highly stressful professions. There’s no need to list here all the various “hot call” scenarios an officer responds to while on duty. With so much pressure on a day-to-day basis, you would think the one easy prescription for stress reduction would be exercise, right? Sure it is – if you do it right.
Terror struck London on Wednesday, just four days after another attack took place at Paris’ Orly airport. Press releases expressing our sympathies and proposed counteractions are becoming too common, and yet there has still been no federal movement on AAAPO’s simple, commonsense initiatives to support our airports and the police who patrol them.
Our country’s cops are dying from heart failure way too young. In October 2016, L.A. County Sheriff Sergeant Al Lopez, age 44, died from a fatal heart attack while driving his patrol car. In June 2016, ICE Officer Brian Beliso, age 37, suffered a fatal heart attack while in foot pursuit of a suspect. And just last week, NYPD Detective Shaniqua Osbourne, age 44, died from a massive heart attack right at her work desk. Rest in peace, officers.
This past Saturday morning, Orly Airport in Paris was the target of an attack by a man carrying a weapon and a can of gas in his rucksack. The suspect grabbed a French soldier at the airport and used her as a shield before two other soldiers shot the man dead. This is yet another terror-related incident in France, which has been the target of repeated acts of terrorism over the last several years.
Yesterday Faaaliga Fuiava was arrested curbside at the departure level of LAX’s Terminal 2, where airport police pulled him over after a passing motorist’s report of a hit and run that had just occurred in the Sepulveda tunnel. LAXPD found a loaded Glock semi-automatic pistol that Fuiava was attempting to retrieve from the center console of his car while also acting erratically.
This week, an airline passenger relayed how she was able to inadvertently take a loaded gun onto an airplane. In this stunning event, the woman went through TSA security, got to her gate and realized her loaded revolver was still in her purse. She has anonymously spoken out to illustrate the ease with which she was able to breach security.