Becoming a visible option

Ryan Carter

With state budget cuts and possible hiring slowdowns looming over

police agencies throughout the state, officials at the

Burbank-Glendale- Pasadena Airport are hoping law-enforcement

applicants will see the Airport Police force as an option.

“If a youngster has any kind of brain on his shoulders and is

keeping up with the news, he’s going to figure out that in the short

to moderate future a job in government and in law enforcement in

particular might be hard to find,” Airport Public Safety Director

Mike Post said.

But that applies to law- enforcement agencies that are dependent

on state funds that funnel through counties and cities.

The Airport Police, under the Joint Powers Agreement that spawned

the Airport Authority, is not dependent on state funding but on

revenue from airport operations. So, Post, who was hired in November

2001 to help build a state-certified Airport Police force, saw an

opening to promote his own department.

The agency has 19 officers, and Post’s goal is to have a force

of 34 officers by Dec. 31. Until the airport gets its police force

up to full staff, off-duty police officers are hired from Burbank,

Glendale and Pasadena.

Of the 60 recruits who graduated from two area police academies in

December, 11 applied to the Burbank Airport Police. That’s more at

one time than any other in Post’s tenure.

“I can only attribute it to [budget cuts],” said Post, who is a

former Glendale Police captain. “And if agencies aren’t having

freezes, they are at least slowing down.”