Retired officer believes lack of cameras makes PHL one of the most unsafe airports in the country
PHILADELPHIA - A former Philadelphia police officer believes the lack of cameras around Philadelphia International Airport has made it one of the most unsafe airports in the country.
Joseph McAlister said he worked as an airport officer for four years and learned about its most vulnerable places for crime, including all of the airport garages.
The airport parking garage near Terminal D is where Philadelphia police officer Richard Mendez and Officer Raul Ortiz were shot during a suspected car theft last week.
Mendez, a 22-year member of the force, died from gunshot wounds and Ortiz, also a veteran officer, was hit in the arm and was later released from the hospital.
Investigators say the officers arrived at the airport to start their shift when they witnessed a group attempting to break into a vehicle. When officers Mendez and Ortiz intervened in the suspected theft, authorities say the officers and one of the suspects were shot from behind.
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Security camera footage from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia captured the fleeing suspects dropping off their fatally injured accomplice, later identified as 18-year-old Jesús Hernán Madera Durán. The recording was some of the only footage of the suspects that investigators had to work with due to the lack of cameras in the airport garage.
"We have no video of what happened, we don't know what happened," McAlister said. "Good thing the video at CHOP was working, or we would have had nothing, we didn't have no videos of them in the garage, we didn't have no videos of them leaving the garage, we didn't have nothing, and that's a scary thing when you thin about it."
The airport, McAlister says, has long been a perfect place for criminals to swipe cars. Not only are the parking lots sorely lacking video cameras, but McAlister says the criminals are given a lengthy head start because the car owners don't notice their vehicle is gone until they return home from their trip.
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Making things doubly dangerous at the airport are the gun-toting car thieves, like the group who made headlines in June for holding a rental car dealership at gunpoint and driving several cars off the lot. The only known footage of that crime came from a camera near the dealer's front gate.
"I think it's unsafe, probably one of the unsafest airports in the country because of the fact you have no security in the garage, there are no cameras," McAlister said.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority said it's been working on a planned garage rehab project and was in the process of testing camera technology before the deadly shooting of Officer Mendez. They plan to install cameras in all the airport garages once their tests are complete.