Oakland Airport to Beef Up Security After Finding Some Lapses

Oakland International Airport officials are moving to replace a private security company with county Sheriff’s Department personnel after spot checks found the private guards asleep or missing from their stations in more than 30 instances last month.

The airport recently brought in 20 armed Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies and Oakland police officers to beef up terminal and parking lot security at the East Bay facility. On Tuesday, airport management will talk to the Oakland Port Commission, which oversees the airport, about further expanding the sheriff’s role.

“What was acceptable prior to Sept. 11 was not after Sept. 11,” said Steve Grossman, the airport’s aviation director.

During a four-day check in late September, Grossman said, airport staff “found a number of [security] posts unmanned and a number of individuals asleep.”

The Federal Aviation Administration observed the same pattern and expressed concern, Grossman added.

Since 1993, the Oakland airport has contracted with ABC Security, a local firm, to patrol parking lots, direct traffic and guard various areas.

“I don’t think they’re any better or any worse than any other security firm,” Grossman said. “Problems we had seem inherent in that industry.”

ABC management, which could not be reached for comment, responded to the incidents of sleeping by sending more supervisors to the airport to ensure that employees were doing their jobs.

Still, in the aftermath of the East Coast attacks, Grossman said he is suggesting that “ultimately the county sheriff’s office would take over all the contract security positions.”

That does not include passenger security checks, which at all airports are the responsibility of the airlines and are generally performed by privately contracted firms.

Staffed by poorly paid workers with little training, private airport security has come under increased scrutiny since the attacks. It has been proposed that the federal government take over passenger checks.

Tightening security at Oakland will more than double the airport’s security bill, which is $3.5 million a year. That would rise to about $10 million with the addition of local police and sheriff’s personnel.

Other California airports use a mixture of law enforcement and private security.

At San Francisco International, a spokesman said parking lots are patrolled by private guards and the terminals by officers from the Police Department’s airport bureau. San Jose uses local police but recently added private security to check cars using short-term parking near the terminals.

Los Angeles International Airport has its own Police Department, supplemented by L.A. police officers.