Study Rejects Merger of LAX Police, LAPD

A long-awaited study unequivocally recommended Thursday that the police force that patrols Los Angeles International Airport remain independent. But it was summarily dismissed by Mayor James K. Hahn and Police Chief William J. Bratton, who continued to call for the unit to be merged with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The 104-page report, completed by Bethesda, Md.-based CTI Consulting Services, found after interviews with numerous security officials, airlines, airport concessionaires and area residents that the airport police force was well trained and highly regarded nationwide.

“You really can’t believe what a slam-dunk it was for this decision,” said Rich Roth, executive director of CTI, an 18-year-old firm known for its security assessments of airports across the country.

Consultants wrote that not a single person told them airport police were incompetent -- a reputation the force gained last year after several high-profile incidents. They included a SWAT team boarding of a jet that was emitting a false hijacking alarm, a high-speed sport utility vehicle crash in Inglewood that critically injured a pedestrian, and a TV report that showed airport police loafing on the job.

Those incidents led lawmakers to call for the $900,000 study to revisit whether the force should be merged with the LAPD. Officials have tried several times to combine the two forces, but the idea has never gained political support.

Despite the report’s definitive conclusions, Hahn, Bratton, several police commissioners and City Councilman Jack Weiss continued Thursday to call for a merger.

“LAX remains the No 1. terrorist target on the West Coast,” Bratton said in a statement. “Having one policing authority enhances the city’s ability to respond quickly to an incident and effectively coordinate and manage the problem. The LAPD is the only agency that has the resources to accomplish this vital mission.”

Hahn, who is fighting for reelection on a platform that emphasizes Bratton’s record of reducing crime, agreed with his police chief. At a campaign stop in North Hollywood on Thursday, the mayor said that although airport police do an “excellent job,” he preferred a more streamlined chain of command, given the possibility of a terror attack akin to those of Sept. 11, 2001.

“In an emergency, you don’t want to have any questions about who’s in charge,” Hahn said. “And so I will still support the idea of merging LAPD and the airport police.”

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who is challenging Hahn for mayor in a runoff election May 17, also supports a merger.

Weiss asked why the city’s airport agency paid its consultant almost $1 million “to be told they’re doing a wonderful job.”

“Last week the airport department chose to ignore the security recommendations of the Rand Corp.,” he said. “This week they seem to want to ignore the security recommendations of Chief Bratton -- the most experienced person in the country when it comes to reorganizing police departments.”

Rand Corp. recommended last fall that the city limit passenger lines at LAX, saying they were vulnerable to a terrorist attack. The Times reported last week that airport officials did not plan to follow through on the recommendations because the airlines and federal government couldn’t afford to add staff to process passengers more quickly.

Other city officials were more reserved in their reaction to the CTI report. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said she was impressed that CTI used a panel of five security experts from airports around the country to review and make suggestions on its findings.

“Those are folks who really are charged with running [security forces at] some very big airports in and around our country that have some similar issues,” she said.

CTI consultants disagreed with the idea that the LAPD could do a better job policing the facility than the airport police agency, which was established in 1946 and given full authority to patrol the airport in 1968. About 324 sworn airport police officers work to prevent crime at LAX. Regular city officers, who work out of a substation at the airport, respond primarily after a crime occurs.

The LAPD “can’t do it as effectively and efficiently as [airport] police,” said M. Ray Garza, president of CTI.

Airport police receive specialized training and can draw on years of experience at LAX -- something lacking among LAPD officers who rotate in and out of the airport bureau, the consultants said.

CTI’s report concluded that “there is no validity” to arguments by critics that the airport police’s response was inadequate in recent incidents.

The union representing airport police said the report validates its repeated assertions that its agency has become the victim of a politically motivated effort by city officials and LAPD managers. Airport officers responded with dismay to Hahn’s and Bratton’s decision to dispute the report’s findings.

“Anyone who questions the credentials of CTI Consulting only needs to review its list of clients,” said Airport Police Capt. LaPonda Fitchpatrick in a statement. “To consciously ignore expert opinion because it doesn’t fit your political platform is irresponsible and dangerous to the security of our city.”

Airport police called on residents to vote against a ballot measure that would delete a provision in the City Charter that requires an independent airport police force that answers to the Airport Commission. Council members voted to place the initiative before voters, arguing that the City Council should be able to decide whether the airport police ought to be merged with the LAPD.

The council’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled to take up the report April 5. The Airport Commission will hold a special meeting to discuss the report Wednesday.

The CTI report found that merging the LAX police and the LAPD would be complicated and expensive.

Numerous questions would arise from a merger, including whether a federal consent decree imposed on the LAPD would apply, whether airport police officers would transition to the LAPD pension system, and how security would be provided at Ontario International Airport and Palmdale Airport, which also are operated by the city of Los Angeles.

The report also recommended that the LAPD and the airport police strengthen their relationship and devise a detailed plan to respond to various attacks that could occur at the world’s fifth-busiest airport.

Consultants cautioned that continued talk about a merger could be detrimental to security at the airport, saying that negative attacks on airport police and their performance are a “morale buster.”

“There seems this cloud of this merger hanging over them for so long that everybody seems to be holding off on some actions like this cross-training,” CTI’s Roth said.

“That’s got to stop. It’s got to end. They have to say ‘We are going to work together, we’re going to train together.’ ”

Times staff writers Richard Fausset and Richard Winton contributed to this report.