Vote Pushes Police Merger a Step Closer

The drive to merge Los Angeles International Airport police with the LAPD moved ahead Monday when a City Council committee unanimously supported a ballot measure to ask voters to remove a City Charter provision requiring an independent airport police force.

After hearing from law enforcement representatives and city officials in favor of a charter amendment, the Public Safety Committee voted 4 to 0 to place such a measure on the May ballot. The full council must vote on the issue by Jan. 26.

The ballot measure would remove a clause in the City Charter approved by voters in 1999 that protects the airport police from oversight and management by the Los Angeles Police Department or other city officials. Upon approval, the council would be able to combine the police departments.

Momentum has built for a merger after a number of well-publicized incidents last year involving airport police, including a high-speed SUV crash in Inglewood that critically injured a pedestrian and a televised report that showed airport police officers loafing on the job. Fifteen officers are under investigation and two have been recommended for termination.

City leaders have discussed combining the departments on several occasions in the last decade, but the idea has not been popular politically until now. The discussion was resurrected after a July 4, 2002, shooting at the El Al Airlines ticket counter in LAX that left three dead. But that effort failed after Mayor James K. Hahn and the Airport Commission opposed it.

“The El Al shooting took place 2 1/2 years ago. This is the first time we’ve taken formal action to make improvements at the airport to prevent such an attack or better respond to one in the future,” said Councilman Jack Weiss, a Public Safety Committee member who has led the merger push.

Police Chief William J. Bratton, Police Commission President David S. Cunningham and Hahn’s chief of staff testified Monday in favor of a charter change.

“This isn’t rocket science,” said Bratton, who appeared before the committee for only the second time in two years. “We’re doing what will provide the best public safety for residents.”

Representatives of the city’s legislative analyst’s office and the administrative office said a combined force would save money and be more efficient.

The Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn., however, opposes a merger. In a statement, the union said that removing the charter provision is “a first step to the dangerous dismantling of one of the most effective airport security coalitions in the country.”

“It is because of the dedication and specialized aviation training of the Los Angeles Airport Police that LAX is considered by many in the aviation world to be one of the world’s safest airports,” the statement said.