Let Police Take Guns on Planes, Union Says

Stepping into the national debate on airline safety, Los Angeles police officers on Thursday sent a letter to the U.S. attorney general requesting that off-duty officers be permitted to carry their firearms on airplanes.

“If the public knows that additional protection is available to them through trained and credentialed officers, they will feel much safer traveling via airplane,” wrote Mitzi Grasso, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents more than 8,000 LAPD officers.

The union’s proposal to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft coincided with an announcement by President Bush that he will significantly beef up airline security measures, including expanding the use of air marshals, fortifying cockpit doors and increasing the federal government’s role in airport safety.

The president’s plans, however, did not include giving off-duty officers the option to carry firearms on airplanes when they travel. Nor did it acknowledge a proposal by the Air Line Pilots Assn. to create an elite corps of highly trained, armed pilots.

The police officers were not the only ones seeking increased security measures on Thursday. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, who was chosen to oversee a national mayoral task force on airport safety, sent a letter to Bush asking the federal government to take over screening of all passengers and baggage at airports.

Questioning whether private companies now in place are capable of doing “the best possible job,” Hahn said he believes that the federal government needs to step in.

“It’s important for national security and it’s important in restoring confidence in the air transportation system,” said Hahn, who was asked by the head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors to lead an airport task force.

Officials from the Department of Justice declined to comment on the police union’s proposal.

A spokeswoman for the Assn. of Flight Attendants, Dawn Deeks, said her organization would support the idea, provided that the officers received training similar to that of the air marshals.

“It seems like a good idea,” Deeks said.

Under Federal Aviation Administration rules, officers may carry their weapons aboard airplanes only if it is within the course and scope of their duties, and they have a letter from their police department approving such action, Grasso said.

“We request that the federal government expand this permission to all off-duty state and federal peace officers,” Grasso wrote.

Les Dorr, a spokesman for the FAA, declined to comment on the proposal. He said officials in the past have been concerned about the possibility of someone getting a gun on board by impersonating an officer.

And, as with air marshals, there is always a concern that a terrorist or other assailant could overpower an officer and take his weapon, Dorr said.

In addition to the LAPD union, other law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles have called for arming off-duty officers when they fly. Last week, Pasadena Police Chief Bernard K. Melekian, president of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Assn., forwarded a similar proposal to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena).

Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, sent the proposal with a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, urging him to consider it.

Because of FAA rules, Melekian said, “Police officers are precluded from serving as auxiliary sky marshals.” He said if officers are allowed to carry their firearms on commercial airlines, they will be able to provide protection to the public much as they do on the streets.

“Law enforcement is partly based on the concept of randomness,” he said. “You don’t put a police officer on every street corner, but crooks know there is a chance that a police officer could come around that corner at any moment. It needs to be the same on airlines. Terrorists wouldn’t be able to predict whether officers were on aircraft.”

Grasso noted in her letter to Ashcroft that many California officers are already trained in the procedures of carrying their weapons on airplanes through a course offered by the state.

“If this program can be launched in California through an existing course . . . we believe it can easily be implemented in other states,” Grasso said in the letter.

“However, should you feel that taking this program nationally is not a viable option, then we suggest that you consider allowing officers to be armed on flights within their own state or between states that approve of their training.”

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Times staff writers Tina Daunt and Richard Winton contributed to this report.