Airport Authority May Form Own Police Force

The Burbank Airport police force, stripped of its badges when it was discovered that the force was created illegally, should be re-established, a committee of the airport’s governors has decided.

Rejecting an offer by the City of Burbank to take over airport policing, the personnel committee of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has voted to recommend that the authority form its own police department, airport spokesman Victor Gill said last week.

The recommendation by the four-member committee must be approved by a majority of the nine-member commission, which next meets July 6.

Acceptance of the recommendation would be a sharp departure from the airport authority’s policy against having employees. The authority, which has never had any employees, operates through concessionaires and subcontractors. Airport administration is handled entirely through Lockheed Air Terminal Inc., a subsidiary of Lockheed Corp., which owned the airport until the three-city authority took it over in 1978.

It was this policy that led to the problem with the status of the airport police.

In 1982, when the state Legislature authorized municipal airport authorities to form police forces, Burbank Airport commissioners had Lockheed Air Terminal provide officers for the airport.

Airport administrators discovered last year, however, that the legislation did not give the airport authority the right to delegate to a private company the power to appoint peace officers. The discovery was made in the course of a lawsuit against the authority by a dismissed airport policeman, which involved a dispute over whether he was a peace officer under state law.

Airport affairs manager Richard Vacar later described the situation as “an incredible oversight.”

The airport authority allowed its officers to continue to act as if they had police powers, airport spokesmen conceded, while an amendment was quietly introduced in the state Legislature to legitimize their status. But the amendment was killed in May by the Senate Judiciary Committee because lawmakers objected to transferring police powers to a private company.

Bowing to the revelation that the airport officers had never been peace officers, the airport authority late last month ordered them to stop carrying guns and making arrests.

To comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations requiring that peace officers be available at security screening stations to enforce laws against carrying weapons onto passenger planes, the administration has had to hire off-duty Burbank city police officers. At least two officers must be present between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., each drawing overtime pay of $34.75 an hour.

As an interim measure, Burbank Police Chief Glen Bell deputized the 23 airport officers as city traffic-control officers so they could continue to issue parking tickets and enforce other traffic regulations.

Bell sent a memo to the Burbank City Council week before last, suggesting that the city, the airport authority and the public “may be better served” by having his officers take over responsibility for the airport. He called for the council to appoint a committee to meet with airport authority representatives to decide a course of action.

In an interview last week, Bell said he was unhappy and surprised that he had no further contact with the airport authority after an initial meeting May 21, at which he agreed to provide officers for the security station.

“You don’t settle an issue like this in one half-hour emergency meeting,” he said.

At its meeting last Tuesday, the City Council accepted Bell’s recommendation, agreeing that the city should send a delegation to the airport authority consisting of Bell, City Atty. Douglas C. Holland and a representative of the city manager’s office.

The group met with the authority’s personnel committee Wednesday, offering five alternatives, Holland said.

These included “the full Cadillac option,” the city attorney said, meaning that Burbank police would simply assume responsibility for the airport, hiring more officers at the airport’s expense.

That would be “the most harsh in regard to employment opportunities for the current band of airport security officers,” he said, who would have to apply for Burbank police jobs and would receive no special consideration in meeting what he called “our very rigorous standards.”

Other options were to create a special category of Burbank police, assigned to airport duties alone, or have a force with both peace officers and others handling only traffic matters.

Another option was for the authority to establish its own police force, but contract with Burbank to administer it, providing supervisors and carrying out recruiting, training and other duties.

Gill said that option was “in the area” of what the personnel committee will recommend, but that the committee is still discussing the matter.