Security highest priority at LAX

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The deadly vehicle attack in Nice, France, raises
concerns about similar attempts on pedestrians in crowded locations locally,
and it’s something that has been on the minds of police and planners at Los
Angeles International Airport.
In fact, Los Angeles Airport Police Public Information Officer Rob
Pedregon said today that reinforced barriers, called bollards, are in the
process of being installed throughout the airport’s central terminal area.
They have already been installed at the Tom Bradley International
Terminal and most of the terminals on the lower arrivals level and the barriers
are being installed on the upper departures level, Pedregon said.
The work is scheduled to be completed in mid-2017, he said, noting that
many existing vehicle barriers are disguised as large planters.
“It might seem they are for aesthetics, but they are there to stop
vehicles,” he said.
A vehicle being used in an attack “is definitely something that’s been
on our minds and that we’ve been working on for a while,” Pedregon said, but
the main concern was of an explosive-laden vehicle.
The Nice attack changes the calculus of securing the central terminal
area from a vehicle attack somewhat, he said.
“That’s a very unfortunate situation that happened (in Nice),”
Pedregon said. “They are just inventing new ways of doing things and we have
to find news ways of stopping them.”
An attacker determined to drive into pedestrians could be hard to stop,
Pedregon admitted, but with officers deployed at key positions, and constant
reevaluation of possible threat scenarios, officials strive to make the airport
as safe as possible without making the facility nearly impossible for the
public to use.
“It’s difficult to find a balance between convenience and safety,”
Pedregon said. “We could make it very secure, but it would just be a nightmare
to get through LAX; the same thing that the TSA went through. It’s a very tough
balance that we have to find.”