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March 15, 2005
Nashville does it better
Related to the previous post is a story I pointed out last year:
- Travelers caught with illegal drugs at Nashville International Airport are allowed to go free without arrest about half the time, recent statistics show.
In the past four years, airport screeners and airport police found an increasing number of people with illegal drugs — a side effect of searches for weapons, bombs and other illegal items that ramped up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, records and interviews with airport police show.
Chief Duane McGray, who heads the airport's Department of Public Safety, said his officers were using more discretion as the intense bag searches continue and his officers encounter small amounts of marijuana.
McGray would prefer that his officers be available to protect the public from more serious threats, rather than spending hours writing reports and in court for minor marijuana crimes, he said yesterday.
''Our primary responsibility is airport security,'' McGray said. ''We have to make judgments about where we put our resources.''
Posted by tedb at March 15, 2005 10:32 AM
