by Edward Wong, New York Times
CHICAGO, - The occupation ended at midnight today.
The men and women in green camouflage fatigues walked out the sliding doors of O’Hare International Airport here, rifles slung over their shoulders. In came their replacements, sauntering around with pressed blue shirts, metal badges and holstered handguns.
It was the same across the country. At airport after airport, police officers flooded into terminals as if rushing to contain prison riots. Instead, they had air travelers to watch and private security screeners to help out. Members of the National Guard were going home, back to jobs and schoolwork and spouses, after more than half a year of scrutinizing checkpoints. Now that duty will fall to police officers, ready to fatten their pockets with overtime pay from the federal government.
“I think it’s positive that the National Guard were here to fill the gap,” said Thomas Walker, commissioner of O’Hare. “Unfortunately there’s another gap now, which is how long the local officers will stay here.”
The Transportation Security Administration, set up by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, oversees the law enforcement officers being put in place around the country this weekend, many of them pulled from local police departments.
The agency intends to replace the officers eventually with federal workers. But those workers have yet to be hired, and so agreements between the agency and cities and airports vary as to how long the local officers will remain.
City officials here and the agency have agreed to keep the police officers at O’Hare until the end of the year, although the city would like the federal government to replace them sooner, Mr. Walker said.
The government paid the bill for deploying 7,000 or so National Guard members at 429 airports last fall, and it will also pay for the overtime of the incoming off-duty officers. Deirdre O’Sullivan, an agency spokeswoman, said she did not have an estimate of how many officers were needed. Here at O’Hare, one of the busiest airports, 50 officers will be on duty at any given time.
The airport has four terminals, and all checkpoints will have at least one or two officers standing next to them, ready to rush to the aid of private security screeners if needed. (The agency intends to replace all contracted screeners with federal workers by Nov. 19, though roll-out dates at most airports have yet to be worked out.)
At Dallas-Fort Worth International, another big air travel hub, 200 officers are replacing 197 members of the Guard. Those officers, most from the airport’s own police department, will watch 20 checkpoints spread out over four terminals.
That airport even staged a changing-of-the-guard ceremony in Terminal B on Thursday, with members of both groups staring across at one another in tight formation. “Mission accomplished,” a Guard officer said.
“The police officers have a better knowledge of the airport,” said Ken Capps, a spokesman for the airport. “These guys have been here 5, 10, 15 years. They know the place backward and forward.”
At O’Hare, the final agreement between the city and the security agency was not signed until this afternoon because lawyers for both sides could not agree on language designating who would assume liability for incidents at the checkpoints, Mr. Walker said. Before Sept. 11, airports were liable for security. In the end, the federal government agreed to assume that responsibility, and officers at O’Hare will be federally deputized.
The local officers also have the power to enforce the law in ways that the National Guard did not.
“I like the idea that the police department is able to arrest and take care of people they need to interface with,” said Isaac E. Richardson, a retired rear admiral who directs the operations here for the security agency.
But many travelers did not seem to notice any difference. To them, the officers might as well be chameleons, melting in among the magnetometers and X-ray machines.
“I don’t care as long as they’re trained and know what they’re doing and have a close eye on people, no matter what race,” said Jann Pennock, a traveler from Michigan who sat with her son here munching pepperoni pizza between flights.