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When Airport Staffing Claims Hit the News: A Five-Point Diagnostic Leaders Can Run This Week

Writer: Kevin Stormer
Kevin Stormer
3 hours ago
4 min read

When a police union and an airport authority trade public statements about staffing, most leaders feel pressure to pick a side.

That is the wrong first move.

The right first move is a short diagnostic you can run with your own books, your own roster, and your own overtime data. The news story is the prompt. Your numbers are the answer.

What FOX 11 reported from LAX

On Sept. 25, 2026, FOX 11's Cristy Fajardo reported that Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, is calling for a financial audit, a city hall look at the managerial process at LAX, and a U.S. Attorneys Office review because the airport receives federal funding.

As reported by FOX 11, McClain said airport police are down more than 100 officers, or about 30%, from about 20 years ago, even as the airport has grown. He also alleged that executive ranks have grown while other positions, including police officers, go unfilled.

Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) did not put someone on camera. Per FOX 11, LAWA called the allegations a "distraction by the union during contract negotiations."

In its statement, LAWA said LAX "maintains a robust, layered public-safety and security operation," continues to invest in people, training, technology, and facilities, and is "modernizing how we deploy our workforce so that sworn police officers can remain focused on frontline law-enforcement responsibilities."

I am not treating the 100-officer / 30% figure as verified fact. It is the union president's claim as reported by FOX 11. LAWA disputes the framing. Both sides are speaking in public during a live labor moment. That is exactly when leaders elsewhere should slow down and check their own house.

Why this pattern shows up everywhere

Airport police staffing debates rarely start as clean spreadsheets. They start as competing stories: short-staffed patrol vs. modernized deployment; empty seats vs. contract pressure; fatigue on the floor vs. confidence in layered security.

I have spent 24+ years in public safety watching the same pattern. Practitioner networks swap the same warning: if you only argue the narrative, you lose the week. If you pull five numbers, you can lead the conversation.

This is method and outcomes, not messaging.

The five-point diagnostic

Use this on your own airport or agency. Do not wait for a reporter to ask.

  1. Authorized vs. filled, same window. Pull sworn airport-police authorized strength and filled strength for the period the claim covers. Do not mix calendar years. Do not mix "budgeted" with "funded" without saying so. A percentage drop only means something if both the numerator and the denominator are clear.

  2. Frontline sworn vs. executive and support growth. If someone alleges executive ranks grew while patrol seats stayed empty, answer with a headcount table: sworn frontline, sworn supervision, civilian support, and executive, over the same years. Growth in one column is not proof of neglect in another. Absence of the table is how rumor wins.

  3. Demand vs. staffing, not one without the other. Passenger volume, cargo, square footage, posts, and special-event load all change the work. Staffing that looks flat can still be thin if demand rose. Demand that rose does not automatically prove understaffing if deployment and technology changed. Put both on one page.

  4. Overtime and fatigue when the roster is short. Short staffing does not only show up as vacant positions. It shows up as mandatory overtime, cancelled training, delayed relief, and tired officers covering gaps. Pull OT hours, comp-time banks, and sick-leave patterns for the units that backfill. Fatigue is an operational risk, not a soft topic.

  5. Peer support capacity under sustained short staffing. When people cover holes for months, peer support and wellness programs stop being "nice to have." Ask who is trained, who is reachable on nights and weekends, and whether the program can handle volume when the roster is thin. A short-staffed force without peer support is running on hope.

How to use the diagnostic in a leadership meeting

Bring the five answers on one sheet. No slides required.

Open with: "Here is authorized vs. filled. Here is how demand moved. Here is OT. Here is peer support capacity."

Then decide what to fix first: hiring, deployment, relief, or support for the people already carrying the load.

You do not need a national story to justify that work. The LAX coverage is a reminder that the public conversation moves fast. Your internal numbers should move first.

What this is not

This is not a ruling on who is right at LAX. FOX 11 reported claims and a response. I was not in those negotiations and I do not have LAWA's internal roster.

This is also not a pitch for a study. It is a pattern leaders can run with their own staff this week.

If your team cannot answer the five points with data, the gap is visibility. Fix that before the next headline arrives.

For practitioners comparing notes

If you lead airport police, ARFF, or public-safety staffing and want a place to compare notes with peers (including overtime fatigue and peer support when short-staffed), join the ApexOS Advisory community:

Sources (accessed Oct. 19, 2026)

Attribution note: The "more than 100 officers or 30% from about 20 years ago" figure is Marshall McClain's claim as reported by FOX 11. It is not independently verified by ApexOS Advisory. LAWA's quoted response is taken from the same article.

 
 
 

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