Protecting the Rights of First Responders Since 1982
Bernard Wilson served as Chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police from 1999 to 2005. After retiring from the Department, he became a consultant specializing in crisis management, helping companies, nonprofits and governments make tough decisions and get the word out to stakeholders. He has worked on several airport security projects and is an advisory board member for a company developing wireless communications technology for aircraft.
This past weekend’s incident at LAX in which 70 pounds of cocaine was found in the carry-on luggage of a flight attendant who fled the airport without her luggage and left her Gucci shoes when she was randomly selected for screening reinforces the need to require that an airport police officer be within 300 feet of a TSA screening checkpoint; real-time police access to airport security cameras and all airport employees screened.
On Friday an airline flight attendant left two carry-on roller bags behind loaded with over 60 pounds of cocaine after she was pulled aside by Transportation Security Administration officers for a random screening in Los Angeles International Airport’s Terminal 4. After the TSA officer directed the suspect to a location for her to be screened she was left unattended and witnesses stated that she made a cellphone call, kicked off her shoes and ran from the terminal down the up escalator.
Airport perimeter breaches have become all too commonplace. According to a news investigation published in April of 2015, at the time, there had been 24 perimeter breaches at LAX since 2004. LAX has seen more perimeter breaches in the past three years than any other three year span in recent history. For example, a mentally ill man scaled the perimeter fence eight times between April 2012 and March 2013 and in two of those instances he was able to reach stairs that led to jets.
As one of the top airports in the world, LAX is undergoing a series of renovation and modernization efforts to continue to draw the record-breaking number of passengers through its terminals. While these changes are important and necessary for travelers to have a positive experience, there has been a neglect in providing basic, functioning equipment for Airport Police.
Last November, data released by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department showed that Los Angeles County has the highest population of chronically homeless in the entire country, with a disturbing increase of 55% from 2013 to 2015. About 70% of L.A.’s homeless are unsheltered versus sheltered individuals, translating to over 12,500 people living on the city streets and 44,300 countywide.