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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Government Plans to Put Armed Officers in Airports

Aired July 07, 2002 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to airport security here at home, are we safe at U.S. airports? Well, it's a renewed concern on the heels of a deadly airport shooting in Los Angeles. The government has a plan to put armed officers in airport terminals around the country. That plan was already in the works before the airport shooting.

CNN's Kathleen Koch explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The federal government emphasized that it is going forward with, but not accelerating its plans to deploy armed federal law enforcement officers to protect all of the nation's airports. That, of course, after security concerns were raised by the July 4 shooting at the El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport.

In the statement TSA said the incident emphasizes -- quote -- "we cannot be complacent about any of the security measures that we put in place at our airports". Of course, after 9/11, it was 6,000 armed National Security Guards who patrolled the nation's airports and in May they were replaced temporarily by local police and law enforcement and the TSA is working now to hire and train its own armed security force, but that it says will eventually patrol the entire airport terminal area. That, of course, inclusive of the ticket counters.

There will also be under cover criminal investigators who will be on the watch for suspicious individuals. The TSA hasn't set a specific timetable, though, for when those officers will all be in place. But a spokesman said that despite the LAX shooting, that deployment will not be accelerated.

The TSA also reiterated its belief that those armed security officers are very critical, saying if not for the El Al guard the situation in Los Angeles, unfortunately, would have been worse.

(on camera): Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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