Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4012 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JANUARY 2017 F ifteen years after 9/11, airport secu- rity is a mess. At Kennedy Interna- tional Airport last summer, chaos exploded after people started cheer- ing for Olympic superstar Usain Bolt. Now a report says that really poor communication between police, private se- curity and other personnel contributed to the mass panic. Loud cheers for Usain Bolt somehow led to a false re- port of gunshots, according to a review by a team of top security officials. A letter from the officials to New York Governor An- drew Cuomo and Home- land Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, blames both air- port employees and law en- forcement for overreacting to several bogus reports of gunshots. The security officials said there were a few glaring issues that need to be re- solved. The biggest one is this – when authorities figured out what happened and that there were no shots fired, they had no way to communicate to people in the airport that there wasn’t a terror attack or an active shooting in progress. That obviously led to more and prolonged chaos. Oddly, government spend- ing on stuff like “see some- thing, say something” cam- paigns may have also had a negative impact. “Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the specter of terrorism has embedded itself in the na- tional psyche and created a persistent, abiding tension that cannot be ignored,” the letter concluded. “Coordi- nation and training . . . is absolutely fundamental to properly address this new paradigm.” That reads like, “Do you guys have a plan for a situa- tion where there’s no attack but everyone thinks there is because you can’t find the PA system?” But the writers of the letter appear to have a point. Here we have a scenario where loud cheering some- how led to reports of shots fired and all hell broke Were those gunshots? Why are all the cops running away?!! Why isn’t there an announcement? Let’s get the F out of here!!!! loose. And here’s Governor Cuomo’s statement to the press: “The events at JFK were a wake-up call to rethink and reevaluate our security procedures to reflect the new, changing reality of 21st Century threats and to better ensure the safety of all New Yorkers.” For the record, here’s what actually happened. A review of security video and recordings of 911 calls found that the chain-reac- tion hysteria started with a call about a disturbance at a café. There was a disturbance – travelers were watching TVs showing Usain Bolt sprint to a gold medal vic- tory in the Olympics and started cheering. Then someone reported shots fired at that location. Port Authority police of- ficers pull their weapons and moved toward the commo- tion while TSA employees ran like hell for the exit. Seeing the “security agents” run for their lives led lots of travelers to follow their lead. “I flew this past weekend. I went through airport security and said to the guy, ‘Is everything okay?’ He said, ‘You might want to have that mole on your ass checked out.’ That seems a little personal to me.” – Jay Leno Some of them fled through secure doors and onto the tar- mac where the planes were. “Seeing TSA agents run- ning away and Port Author- ity cops with guns drawn created obvious fear and panic,” the letter states. As the result of the self-evacu- ation, “secure areas were compromised, which left the terminals, tarmac and airplanes vulnerable to a possible terrorist attack or other illegal conduct,” it added. So there it is. Fifteen years after 9/11 and this is “airport security.” It was flawless! World’s fastest man Usain Bolt suggests that authorities might want to run a few drills or exercises to prevent such chaos going forward t
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