Fla. airport cut security years before shooting
More than two dozen law enforcement jobs shifted or slashed
Years before gunman Esteban Santiago killed five people and wounded six others at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the local agency that runs the airport had taken the rare step of cutting law enforcement positions at the bustling facility.
Even as police calls were rising at the airport, Broward County slashed more than two dozen jobs and ordered many of the deputies to move from the terminals to direct traffic along the curbs rather than guard the public areas inside, records and interviews show.
By the time Santiago stepped off his Delta Airlines flight Jan. 6, retrieved his 9mm Walther handgun from his bag and opened fire on travelers, there were no armed deputies in the lower level of the terminal during the worst airport attack in U.S. history.
“There should have been (deputies) in that terminal,” said Anthony Roman, an airport security expert who conducts risk management investigations. “Their primary mission was to protect the airport. Clearly, things went wrong.”
As law enforcement investigators turn up details about the 26year-old Iraq War veteran, local and federal authorities are examining protection at the airport and whether it was staffed adequately at the time of the rampage, which led to a shutdown the airport and stranded thousands of travelers.
Sheriff Scott Israel declined to answer specific questions about safeguards during the attack, but he said the airport was properly policed and the shooter was arrested within a minute and 20 seconds of opening fire — a timely response, he said.
“It was seamless,” Israel said. “I’ve never seen such cohesion” among law enforcement agents. However, experts say that as traffic at the airport grew dramatically in recent years — with millions of more passengers since 2014 — Broward County never kept up with the growth by hiring more deputies, leaving large areas unprotected, including the baggage area where Santiago embarked on his mass shooting.
In fact, the county cut at least six sworn deputies and nearly two dozen traffic enforcement officers since 2009, despite the opening of a new runway two years ago that drew scores of new flights.
The Broward County aviation department, which runs the airport and pays the sheriff for security, did not respond to questions about staffing.
The cuts took place while airports around the world were under increased attack, including a bloody rampage in Los Angeles International Airport in 2013 that led to the shooting of a federal security worker and the wounding of two others, prompting sweeping recommendations for other airports to improve safety.
Yet, Fort Lauderdale airport managers and sheriff ’s commanders never responded by beefing up patrols in the sprawling hub, now among the fastestgrowing in the country.
“The lines (in the terminals) are getting so long it’s scary,” said Jeff Bell, president of the union that represents deputies, who is planning to ask the sheriff to increase deputies in the terminals.
Bell said the drop in law enforcement presence has forced deputies to patrol far greater areas with fewer people. Just in the last year, they have been called to investigate hundreds of more incidents — including unruly passengers, car thefts and accidents throughout the 18,000-acre airport grounds.
In addition, more than a dozen community service aides were cut from the budget, forcing the deputies to take over traffic duties that had been previously carried out by aides.
“You’re asking people to do more and more with less and less,” Bell said. “When you come into the entrance, you can’t see a police car. Just put some cars out there and turn on the lights.”
Israel, a former Fort Lauderdale police captain who was elected sheriff in 2012, said he has not seen the staffing data and was unaware that positions at the airport had been reduced over the years, including the loss of 14 jobs during his tenure.
As police calls doubled over the past decade, the number of positions at the airport were cut to 116 jobs — a drop of 23%, records show.
During a meeting Tuesday at the sheriff ’s headquarters to discuss security in the four terminals, Israel said his agency is reviewing its response to the attack in Terminal 2 and the pandemonium that followed.
“If we need more deputies, I will ask for them,” Israel said.
The debate over security has spawned greater attention to public areas of airports across the country, including the baggage claim areas, where guard duties are largely left to the city and county law enforcement agencies at most facilities.
Passenger checkpoints and airplanes are under the watch of federal agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration. But the vast public areas, including check-in counters and curbsides, are guarded by local law enforcement officers.
Sheriff Israel said it could be weeks before his agency completes its study to pinpoint possible breakdowns at the hub, which hosts more than 26 million passengers a year.
He defended his deputies’ actions, saying they were able to stop Santiago within 76 seconds of the attack.
But even that claim has drawn skepticism from some airport security experts who questioned why no guards were posted in the lower level and whether a police presence could have made a critical difference in the response time.
“We’re talking precious seconds,” Roman said. “Seventy to 80 seconds gives an active shooter time to fire off 30-40-50 rounds.”
After exiting a restroom, Santiago was able to fire his 9mm handgun — 10 to 15 rounds — before he ran out of ammunition. By the time the first deputy approached him, he had thrown down his gun, dropped to the floor and surrendered.
Roman said that if one armed deputy had been in the immediate area at the outset, it could have created at least one obstacle for the shooter.
“It allows passengers more precious seconds to escape,” he said. “We’re talking seconds in these scenarios.”
Jeffrey Price, a published researcher on airport security who teaches at Metropolitan State University in Denver, defended the deputies at the airport.
“They engaged him very quickly,” Price said.
But he also said the presence of armed guards in the baggage claim area might have deterred the gunman from opening fire in the area, where dozens of people were gathered close to one another.
“Most people don’t want to engage someone who is armed and ready to shoot,” said Price, who has written two textbooks on airport safety.
The Sheriff ’s Office turned down USA TODAY Network’s request to review any security studies that might have been conducted at the airport in recent years. The Sheriff ’s Office said that information is exempt from state open records law because it covers safety matters.
Tensions arose two years ago when deputies were forced to take over most of the traffic detail just before the new runway opened, putting officers out in the roadways — and out of the terminals — for much of their shifts, said Jeff Marano, president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association.
“It was horrendous,” said Marano, whose unit then represented the deputies. “In those lower levels, you’re breathing in fumes. The heat. They’re carrying 30 pounds on their belts.”
Despite a 10% increase in calls for police services since the new runway opened, the Sheriff ’s Office has not requested more deputies, according to its past two proposed budgets, leaving the staffing at 116 positions, its lowest level in at least a decade.
“They peeled back the personnel,” said Jeff Bell, the union president who now represents most of the deputies.
He said the staffing has been so low in recent years, “You can go out there and won’t see a patrol car.”
To boost security, the sheriff would have to staff about a dozen officers for every shift — three in each terminal — and hire others to patrol the grounds, Bell said. He said the staffing should be closer to what it was a decade ago: 150.
“After 9/11, you could not walk 10 feet without seeing an armed, uniformed deputy,” Bell said.
Price, who advises airports on security breakdowns, said the shooting in Fort Lauderdale was drastic enough to raise issues that had rarely been discussed, including the questions over staffing.
Until now, the Transportation Security Administration has never required police to place a specific number of people in the terminals, but reviews the security programs created by local police to ensure they can respond to trouble at the checkpoints.
“I’m hoping this could be a tipping point,” he said.
Unlike attacks in public places such as shopping malls, shootings in air facilities are strikingly different, he said.
As after the tragedy in Fort Lauderdale, airports can be shut down immediately and flights diverted to other airports.
“When you shoot up an airport, you’ve disrupted the the entire aviation system of the country,” he said.
“If we need more deputies, I will ask for them.” Sheriff Scott Israel