Kansas City Police Might Replace Airport Security Crew. The Debate: Is It a Bad Idea?

By Allison Kite

Source The Kansas City Star (TNS)

June 25, 2020

3 min read

Kansas City may look into replacing its security officers at Kansas City International Airport with Kansas City Police Department uniformed officers, a move aviation officials warn could be costly and legally risky.

A City Council committee voted Wednesday in favor of legislation asking the city manager’s office to study the proposal and report back within 30 days. The change would not affect passenger screenings through the federal Transportation Security Administration.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who introduced the proposal with Councilwoman Teresa Loar, 2nd District at-large, said the change could save the city’s general fund money.

Already, a handful of KCPD officers work at the airport, and Lucas said the city could shift their salaries to the Aviation Department’s budget, which is funded by money collected at the airport and operates separately from the rest of the city budget. Moving those salaries Lucas said, could create “cost savings back at City Hall.”

“We’re looking at budgets. We’re looking at where money is and where money is coming from,” Lucas said, “so I do think that this would present an opportunity for not insignificant general fund savings for the provision of very similar policing services.”

The issue has been discussed periodically over the years. In January, the city’s Aviation Department wrote a memo to the city manager outlining several concerns. The change would add $3 million to $7 million to the department’s budget each year because KCPD officers are paid more than the current security staff, said the department’s director, Pat Klein.

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“This does not include equipment or the costs of retirements, which will increase the dollar amounts beyond those numbers,” Klein said in the memo. “KCAD does not see any service level benefits from moving from our officers to KCPD officers to justify such dramatic increases in costs.”

Klein also questioned the thinking of putting KCPD officers at the airport rather than elsewhere in the city.

“I would say, given KCPD’s budget requests each and every year for more officers and our current crime rate, I don’t see the logic of requiring roughly 50 KCPD officers at the airports, which will not be allowed to help elsewhere in the City when needed,” he said.

Klein also wrote that because the city doesn’t have local control of its police force, he was unsure if airport personnel could direct KCPD officers without running afoul of those rules. He warned it may violate Federal Aviation Administration rules that say airport revenues must be spent at the airport.

“We are currently providing the same service for millions less,” he said.

Lucas called the concerns “hyperbolic.”

“I just don’t see how his points are valid at all,” Lucas said.

Lucas emphasized that the council is seeking information, and he noted that municipal police department serve at airports in other cities.

The full council is expected to decide on the change next month.

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