Bratton Backs Merger

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Tuesday endorsed a merger of the independent police department that patrols Los Angeles International Airport with the LAPD for the first time, arguing that a combined force would make the airport more secure.

“Make no mistake about it, we want to put the airport police under the control of the Los Angeles police,” Bratton told the five-member Police Commission.

At Bratton’s urging, the civilian commission agreed to ask Mayor James K. Hahn and the City Council to put a measure to combine the airport police with the Los Angeles Police Department on the ballot.

Such a plan would require voter approval to amend the City Charter. In making the endorsement, Bratton has publicly broken with Hahn, who has urged city officials to reserve judgment until an independent study is completed early next year.

“The mayor feels very strongly that he doesn’t want to take any position until the reports are finished, and he has an opportunity to review all of the information,” said Hahn spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman.

The City Council resurrected a decades-old debate over combining the two forces in May, citing confusion among the multiple agencies that responded to a false hijacking at LAX on May 3.

The council asked the city’s airport agency to hire an expert to study whether the LAX force has sufficient training and whether it makes sense to have overlapping police agencies at the airport.

An LAPD spokesman said Tuesday that the chief would be willing to wait until the study is complete to move forward with the merger proposal.

After the City Council’s action in May, Bratton said though he could see the merits of merging the LAX police with the LAPD, the political climate did not support the change. “The reality is that politically there’s no political will to do that right now,” he said at the time.