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."