Chicago airport police unarmed: to combat terrorists told to run and hide

[SheepDog4Life]

Un-frickin-believable. This has to an Onion gag, right? No...

A CNN investigation in December revealed that the nearly 300 aviation police officers at O'Hare and Midway airports are not only unarmed, but they are instructed to "run and hide" in the event of an active shooter. Officers repeatedly told CNN that the policy puts them in danger.

Airport police say they need guns to combat terrorists - CNN.com

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

Perhaps they think mere presence is deterrence?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Chicago police do not need guns. They have all that gun control to protect them.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

According to their Union rep, they go through the Chicago Policy Academy, they are qualified with firearms and must re-qualify every year. According to the CNN report, they are sworn LEO, many from suburban PDs.

Thankfully, according to the CNN report, Chicago airport is the only airport with unarmed Aviation Police. (I hope that's true, that only Chicago is this stupid, but not putting faith in it)

 

[Drail]

Police carrying sidearms and ARs will not stop anyone concealing a bomb. They might as well carry Bibles and cloves of garlic and sing Kumba Ya. It's just more airport security theater. And now they want to move the lines of people outside the airport to protect the building (because they know they cannot protect the people - but they might save the building which is worth a lot of money). They just don't get it. If you invite and allow insane suicidal Jihadists to invade your country by the thousands then every single place where large numbers of people gather is just another massacre waiting to happen. Wake up people - more security theater is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Islam is NOT a religion - it's a suicide cult and it deserves absolutely no protection from the "sensitive" liberal mindset.

 

[halfmileharry]

I think gun free zones work.
After much consideration I have come to the conclusion the problem is the gfz are not printed in enough different languages.
Add in multi lingual no bomb zone signs and terrorist problem solved.
Typically the antis didn't think this solution all the way through.

 

[KittySlayer]

Perhaps they think mere presence is deterrence?

In light of falling tax revenues Chicago has come up with an innovative way to double it's police presence.

 

[Drail]

LOL. Even though that will not stop the Jihadists it WILL make the sheep feel more "safe". Reminds me of the inflatable fake police cars they used to try to slow traffic on the highways a few years ago (which actually worked).

 

[pudly]

Perhaps they think mere presence is deterrence?

That's why it's called security theater.

 

[68NOVA]

According to their Union rep, they go through the Chicago Policy Academy, they are qualified with firearms and must re-qualify every year. According to the CNN report, they are sworn LEO, many from suburban PDs.

Thankfully, according to the CNN report, Chicago airport is the only airport with unarmed Aviation Police. (I hope that's true, that only Chicago is this stupid, but not putting faith in it)

It is correct.

They are sworn, do not carry on duty...

Are instructed to contact CPD if it hits the fan...

Pretty much unarmed security , but with perks.

 

[Hkindiana]

Police carrying sidearms and ARs will not stop anyone concealing a bomb. They might as well carry Bibles and cloves of garlic and sing Kumba Ya. It's just more airport security theater. And now they want to move the lines of people outside the airport to protect the building (because they know they cannot protect the people - but they might save the building which is worth a lot of money). They just don't get it. If you invite and allow insane suicidal Jihadists to invade your country by the thousands then every single place where large numbers of people gather is just another massacre waiting to happen. Wake up people - more security theater is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Islam is NOT a religion - it's a suicide cult and it deserves absolutely no protection from the "sensitive" liberal mindset.

Armed airport police will not stop a bomb, but they could possibly stop an armed shooter, like the police officer did in Turkey. Sure, the guy still blew himself up, but he wasn't able to get to a group of people before he did so.

 

[Drail]

He will if everyone is forced to stand in line outside the terminal. Just look at what happened in Orlando. There were PLENTY of armed police - OUTSIDE of the building where the shooter and all of the victims were. For hours no less.........

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Airport police, at least in Indy, deal with a lot more than terrorism related incidents. There are run of the mill crimes at airports, too. People with domestic issues and restraining order violations, car break ins, narcotics activity, vice activity, etc.

 

[jgressley2003]

Maybe they should hang up "no terrorist" signs. Disarming people has worked in Chicago, just look how safe the city is now.

 

[Bill of Rights]

.... Islam is NOT a religion - it's a suicide cult and it deserves absolutely no protection from the "sensitive" liberal mindset.

I'm not "sensitive" and I'm not liberal. I'm also not Muslim, but some of our members here are, and well-respected ones at that.

YOU may not recognize Islam as a religion, but it definitely is one. Having a mind closed to any belief other than your own is your prerogative. Insulting other members or their religious beliefs is not your prerogative on INGO. Please do not repeat this behavior; you would be furious if someone insulted your beliefs similarly, and rightly so.

And yeah, this is your in-thread warning.

Blessings,
Bill

 

[SheepDog4Life]

Airport police, at least in Indy, deal with a lot more than terrorism related incidents. There are run of the mill crimes at airports, too. People with domestic issues and restraining order violations, car break ins, narcotics activity, vice activity, etc.

Are they sworn LEO's (sounds like they are) and are they armed (I'm assuming they are)?

My thoughts are if they are trained to be armed, they should be especially since their primary duty area is a "gun free zone" and frequent terrorist target, generically, airports.

 

[KLB]

The city of Chicago is odd. The Union Station in Chicago has armed police, but those are Feds.

I must say though that those armed police at the train station do not make me feel any safer. The no gun signs on the doors on the other hand....

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Are they sworn LEO's (sounds like they are) and are they armed (I'm assuming they are)?

Yes to both.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

Here's a "The Onion" version of this story...

Chicago Won't Arm Airport Police, Doesn't Want Too Many Guns in O'Hare
Airport cops should 'run and hide' in the event of a terrorist attack

byline Chicago:

"I'm a real police officer, not a 'mall cop'", said the officer who asked not to be identified. "I went through the police academy, I'm a sworn law enforcement officer. Heck, I even had to qualify with my firearm, the one they took away from me when I reported to the airport for duty. That really sucks."


When asked why the 300-plus Airport Police force was unarmed, the Chicago Director of Aviation Security, Joe Schmoe commented, "We have 230 Chicago police who do all of the gun stuff. It's not a good idea to have too many guns in the airport, you know, because they are guns... and it's an airport."


And about the "run and hide" edict, Shmoe said, "Absolutely! You know in a terrorist attack there would be a lot of people running away. If you had too many people, like police with guns, running towards the terrorist gun fire, someone might get hurt. Trip, run into each other or something. This makes things much more orderly."

But, the policy isn't written in stone. He later added, "We are looking very carefully at the 'and hide' part though. There is a concern that the Airport Police, you know working there all the time, might know and take the best hiding spots. One of our committees is considering changing it to just 'run' or 'run and keep on running'. That way there would be more hiding spots for airport patrons."

 

[IndyDave1776]

Airport police, at least in Indy, deal with a lot more than terrorism related incidents. There are run of the mill crimes at airports, too. People with domestic issues and restraining order violations, car break ins, narcotics activity, vice activity, etc.

Hopefully they are spending less time screwing with people over petty nonsense on Washington Street these days.