Pubdate: Sat, 18 Sept 1999 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald Contact: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693 Fax: (305) 376-8950 Website: http://www.herald.com/ Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald Author: Karen Branch, Herald Staff Writer MIA WORKERS TO GET REWARDS FOR CRIME TIPS Under new security measures, Miami International Airport will be like a Crime Watch neighborhood. Airport employees will be offered rewards of up to $1,000 for tips leading to the arrest of their colleagues, as part of a push for heightened security after two high-profile smuggling busts at MIA. Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas unveiled Crime Stoppers reward posters Friday at a news conference detailing MIA's new security measures. The number to dial: 305-471-8477 (TIPS). "We want to encourage airport employees to report any tips they have, said Penelas, next to the yellow reward posters that will be strategically placed at seven doors to access-restricted areas. The doors themselves are part of the immediate $5 million security buildup to be in place by the end of the year. In the past, employees could enter the restricted-access areas through any of 37 doors. The number of doors will be reduced to seven, all of which will feature many of the same security checks required of passengers. Penelas, with a special-issued photo access card, demonstrated the new security. He carried a transparent bag -- which all airport employees must use to transport personal items into restricted-access areas. The bag slid through an X-ray machine as Penelas walked through a metal detector. An employee inspected the contents of the bag. Then Penelas swiped his access card to record his entry into the restricted area. He swiped it again as he reentered the baggage carousel area -- where an employee checked the contents of his transparent bag once again. It's all aimed at preventing the security breaches exposed by recent smuggling arrests of 58 employees on Aug. 25 and 15 more Sept. 9. In the first arrest, baggage handlers and ground crew members were charged with smuggling drugs, hand grenades and guns onto passenger jets. The second group of workers was charged with smuggling cocaine aboard planes. "MIA has already made significant enhancements to tighten security at the airport, Penelas said. "Unfortunately, these improvements were not specifically designed to deal with corrupt employees who utilized their restricted-access credentials to perpetrate criminal acts and violate the public trust. We simply will not tolerate that any longer. New security measures In addition to transparent bags, metal detectors and X-ray machines to monitor employee access, the $5 million of immediate security changes include: Inspections of all cars and employees entering restricted areas. Random inspections of cars and employees exiting restricted areas. Banning employees from restricted areas on days off and when they're not scheduled to work. Expanded criminal background checks on prospective employees. 50 new security personnel. Nelson Oramas, MIA's assistant director for security, said those changes will be followed by a $72 million security build-up as part of a $5 billion airport expansion. Those enhancements include the addition of closed-circuit televisions to monitor both passengers and employees throughout the airport. It also will add a more sophisticated element to the restricted-access checkpoints that Penelas demonstrated Friday. That will further limit employee access to restricted areas. "We call it zoning, Oramas said. "So employees only can access the part of the airport where they actually work. Union on board David Bates, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 568 that represents 2,300 ground workers for American Airlines at MIA, said the union -- for the most part -- is on board with the new measures. "Their main concern is that these measures be fairly and equally applied to all airport workers," Bates said. "They don't want to feel they are being singled out and harassed just because a small number of their co-workers were involved in those incidents. I don't think they have any problem with it for the most part. They see it's a necessary procedure to try to prevent the type of incidents that occurred." Bates said many of the employees he represents already face similar security measures. "A lot of my members access the work area through the main terminal itself and subject themselves to going through the metal detector and X-ray machines," he said. "They prefer that to each and every time having a stranger rummaging through their bags." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea