Originally Posted by
Bearcat06
LEO at the C/P can be right there if there is any issues....on top of watching for TSA/Passenger issues during the screening process that folks on here moan about all the time..... BTDT.
Who said anything about getting rid of roving patrols/car patrols/bike patrols/Segway patrols....?
I'm merely saying is that they should add LEOs at the C/Ps that don't have them (as some airports do/others don't) and keep doing what they are doing elsewhere......ie roving patrols/car patrols/bike patrols/Segway patrols......
1) A LEO being "right there" at the time of another incident wouldn't make a whole heck of a lot of difference; a random shooter still has at least one good, clear shot at the beginning of the incident - and if he uses that first shot to shoot the LEO, then the only difference you've got in the situation is an additional public servant funeral.
2) Aside form the LAX shooter, how many other incidents of violence have there been at c/p's to justify the enormous expenditure of keeping LEOs there at all times? Bueller? Bueller? Could the answer be... NONE?
3) So, you don't want to reassign LEOs from the roving patrols to guard each c/p round the clock, you want to hire, train, equip, and pay the huge number of ADDITIONAL LEOs it would require to station one at each c/p round the clock. Based on a single incident? As I said before - THERE IS NO NEED. It would be a tremendous waste of time, money, resources, and valuable law enforcement skills which could be better utilized in other areas.
Originally Posted by
Bearcat06
It happened after 9-11....and right before/after the Iraq war started...... No one seemed to have issues then.
If you don't think the Airports can afford it, then you are foolish. Most (if not all) Airports run in the black.
Hell, MCI Aviation Dept. was the only Dept for the City of KC that actually made money behind the Park and Rec Dept and they (sadly) are now running in the red every year......
It wouldn't cost much to do it and if done properly, you could rotate folks out and/or make it an OT duty at 4 hour whacks and no one have issues....
4) No one seemed to have issues with it after 9/11 because the entire country was quivering in fear under their beds. I know it's been a decade, but think back to the atmosphere in the country in the weeks after 9/11. The entire country was in shock. People who simply
watched it on TV from thousands of miles away were being diagnosed with PTSD. From watching it on TV! The country was in a state of mass hysteria, and very few people were thinking rationally.***
5) Ah ha! Now we come to the real motivation - MONEY. You're naturally supportive of any endeavor that would allow your brothers in blue to collect fat OT paychecks for doing nothing more than sitting on their butts for 4 or 8 hours at a c/p. Easy duty, even easier than spending the morning in court or doing desk duty, because there's no paperwork involved. Heck, it's even easier than working a sporting event, because you wouldn't even have to be on your feet the whole time.
Let me just reiterate - THERE IS NO NEED for LEOs to be stationed permanently at the c/p's. NONE. A single incident does not constitute a new threat - the threat was always there, but the risk is so low that there has been only one incident in 7.2 billion transiting travelers, and that's just since TSA was established 11 years ago.
***As with most things, those fearful days after 9/11 today remind me of a movie quote, as the entire country dove under their beds or into their storm cellars and cried out for something, ANYTHING, to protect them from the Evil Muslim Terrorist Global Network of Evil. Robin Hood: Men in Tights, 1993:
Prince John: Save me, save me! Hurt them, hurt them!
Sheriff of Rottingham: Right! Save them, save them, hurt you, hurt you! I've got it!
And the federal government has indeed saved them and hurt us over the intervening decade.