Airport Rejects National Guard;
Oakland Wants Rent-A-Cop Profit

Oakland International Airport security officials rejected National Guard troops activated on Thursday, saying they had the necessary security and law enforcement resources in place to respond to this week's terror threat.

Airport managers, anti-terrorism officials, and representatives of local and regional law enforcement agencies met Friday morning at Oakland airport and decided unanimously to decline the deployment, said Fred Lau, the airport's federal security director.

– Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2006

By Jim Forsyth

Since 2002 the Port of Oakland has "rented" 24 to 31 police from Oakland to patrol the airport. This year the Port rented 24 officers. Suppose those 24 officers, amounting to 3.5 percent of the police force and nearly half the number of police promised by Measure Y, had been working city streets for the last four years. How many less crime victims would there have been?

No one knows, but if we assume each officer has an equal impact on crime, it could be substantial. For example, about 450 murders have occurred since OPD has been at the airport. Thus, 3.5 percent of that figure equals 15 people that might still be walking around, maybe a classroom of kids who wouldn't be missing a parent or a sibling, and maybe a hundred or so parents and relatives who wouldn't be living with a painful void in their family consciousness.

Sound serious? Now calculate 3.5% of Oakland's 293 forcible rapes, 2,590 robberies, 2543 felony assaults, 5,646 burglaries, and 8,821 auto thefts in 2005 to grasp the full potential impact of the human misery resulting from the loss of these 24 cops from our streets.

When it was decided to replace the airport patrol after 9/11 in 2001, the county sheriff's department wanted the entire job. OPD competed and won part of it. Given Oakland's serious crime problem, why did the mayor and council approve a goal that would remove officers from patrolling the city's streets?

Budget numbers hint at a motive: The Port will pay $5,223,000 rent for the officers this year, but the City will only spend $4,202,000 supplying the officers, leaving a tidy 20% net profit of $1,021,000 in unrestricted general fund dollars.

Airport security means Rent-A-Cop profits for City Hall.

After the 1,100-signature "Enough is Enough!" petition for more officers last winter, the mayor and council were practically tripping over one another to get before the news cameras and profess their fervent commitment to full police staffing and enhanced public safety. Police chief Tucker played a seemingly mindless replacement game, pulling some airport cops to the streets but adding overtime by the remaining officers at the airport. Ending the rent-a-cop-for-profit program has never been seriously considered.

There are too many uncertainties at this time to determine if and when the National Guard could replace the airport officers. "How long will the guard be committed to the task?" and "How long will it take to bring guard personnel up to speed?" are two immediate issues. However, it is clearly certain that when OPD is limping along with more than 100 fewer officers than authorized, the City should immediately decide to hand off airport security to another agency ASAP.

When a neighbor heard about the airport rent-a-cop budget laundering, he emailed this reaction: "In many cities, this bit of dirty business would cause people to throw open their windows and cry, 'I'm mad as hell and I won't take it anymore.'" I tried that last night, but I couldn't make my voice heard above the "boom" cars, helicopters, scooters, fighting dogs, gunshots, sirens, and the screaming tires and drunken roar of a nearby sideshow.