Security Officers At O'Hare, Midway Will No Longer Be Police, City Decides

[mikecurtis]

Changes at O’hare!

Aviation security officers will be stripped of the right to call themselves police, Chicago officials announced Wednesday — despite pleas from the officers themselves and some aldermen that the move would jeopardize the safety of passengers at O’Hare and Midway airports.

Chicago Aviation Department Commissioner Ginger Evans said she would move ahead with her plan to rebrand the force in the wake of the fracas that erupted April 9 after officers dragged a Louisville doctor off a United Airlines flight and seriously injured him. . .

City officials “will order the Aviation security division to adopt new insignia, replacing current uniforms improperly utilizing the word police, and will take immediate action to replace the word ‘police’ with new security decals on department vehicles,” Evans said in a report issued Wednesday about the O’Hare incident.

Evans first ordered the change in January, but ran into a wall of opposition. . .

The Service Employee International Union, which represents the officers, filed an objection to the removal of the term police from their vehicles and uniforms. That objection is pending before state Labor Department officials.

Matt Brandon, who represents several dozen Aviation security sergeants, said he believed Evans was laying the groundwork to fire the existing officers and replace them with “security guards that are paid $15 an hour.”. . .

In addition, Aviation security officers — who cost the city $19 million annually — will no longer take the lead when there is a disturbance on an airplane or in the airport, Evans said. Instead, Chicago police officers will handle those incidents.

Three Aviation security officers have been suspended with pay in connection with their role in the April incident. City of Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson has completed his review of the employees’ conduct, and officials are “moving forward with the disciplinary process,” Evans said.

[Chimera]

There is a huge difference between Police and Security. Police have qualified immunity. Security Guards do not. They can be fired more easily and personally sued into oblivion.

But I would say that the article is correct, they mean to replace those people with $15 an hour security guards.

What are the Chicago aviation police?

"Q: Are aviation police part of the Chicago Police Department?

A: No. They’re with the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Q: How many aviation officers are there?

A: About 300. Working at the city’s two major airports, they are a mix of part- and full-time cops, and some work as police in other departments, said Adam Rosen, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents them. Full-timers earn between $50,000 and $88,000 a year and cost the city about $19 million a year."

So that is an average of about $63,333 each, which means there are probably a few more part timers than full timers. If they go to $15 an hour security positions, they’ll cut this in half.

[Budget_Player_Cadet]

@Chimera

There is a huge difference between Police and Security. Police have qualified immunity. Security Guards do not.

Oh good, then this is probably not a bad thing.

[CarnalK]

So were they ever actually police or not? Commissioner Evans says they were “improperly utilizing the word police” and they only had limited arrest powers.