Marshals work behind the scenes at airport

Jace Radke

Thursday, Dec. 26, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

Holiday travelers passing through McCarran International Airport can easily spot bomb-sniffing dogs and other security measures, but they may not notice the presence of Nevada's largest federal law enforcement agency.

The nation's fifth-largest air marshal office is located in Las Vegas, where federal officers are discreetly dispatched to watch over flights traveling all over the world, said David Knowlton, special agent in charge of the marshals in Las Vegas.

The armed agents are taught to blend in with travelers and are responsible for protecting passengers and employees on flights of airlines based in the United States.

"We're the ones that you don't see," Knowlton said. "We're out there carrying out our mission to make air travel safer, we just don't advertise our presence."

Knowlton would not divulge certain facts about the Transportation Security Administration's marshal program in Las Vegas, including where the office is and how many marshals are stationed here. Officials with the TSA's Washington office also would not comment on numbers or locations.

There are 21 air marshal offices nationwide, serving as bases for these airborne federal officers. Knowlton has been in charge of the Las Vegas office since August, and is just now beginning to catch up with the rapid growth the agency experienced after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"We're still a work in progress, but we're seeing more stabilization after the emergency standup. We went from about 100 air marshals prior to Sept. 11 to thousands," said Knowlton, who spent 32 years in the FBI, retiring as an assistant director.

His wife, Ellen Knowlton, took over as special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office in late May. Nico Melendez, national spokesman for the TSA, said that the precise number of air marshals is kept confidential because of security concerns, but reports have pegged the number at more than 4,000 nationwide.

The Las Vegas contingent is the largest federal law enforcement agency in state, David Knowlton said. The second-largest, the FBI, has about 100 agents in Nevada.

The large number of flights that begin and end at McCarran International Airport make Las Vegas a natural for an air marshal office, Knowlton said.

"The volume of flights through here as well as the geographic location in the West make this (location) ideal," Knowlton said. "The weather is good, so there aren't a lot of cancellations, and strategically it allows for easy access to the West Coast."

On peak days as many as 100,000 people either begin or end trips at McCarran, a figure that's second only to Los Angeles International Airport, airport spokeswoman Debbie Millet said.

Those numbers can grow even larger during the holidays when local residents further crowd the airport, Millet said.

The other 20 air marshal offices are located at or near other major airports, and marshals are assigned to the outposts after being trained at the the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, N.M., and the marshal training center in Atlantic City, N.J.

"Once they are assigned to an office the training doesn't end," Knowlton said. "Once a month they receive additional training in close quarter combat, counterterrorism, advanced CPR and firearms. The firearms qualifications are similar to the FBI's."

Air marshals work five-day weeks and fly in pairs. Many of the nation's marshals transferred to the agency from the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Customs Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Candidates from other backgrounds who have not already completed the federal law enforcement training requirements, such as retired military or police officers, must be 39 years old or younger to qualify as an air marshall.

"We certainly have marshals over the age of 40, but we look to hire people who have not yet reached that age," Knowlton said. "Right now we are still waiting for our 2003 budget to be passed, and then I expect we'll see some additional hiring."

Questions about the armed federal agents have been raised by former marshals, who have alleged that many marshals are quitting because of long hours, being asked to fly solo missions and a business attire dress code that could blow their cover.

Jose Rodriguez, a former marshal at the Las Vegas office who now works as a police officer in Texas, made many of the allegations in a USA Today article last week.

The General Accounting Office and the Transportation Department's inspector general are conducting an audit and investigation of the air marshals, although Transportation Security Administration officials say that the air marshal program is going well, the report said.

Knowlton and other TSA officials would not comment on Rodriguez or the allegations.

"There's two sides to every story," Knowlton said. "I just want to say that I'm really proud of the well-trained men and women who professionally and quietly go about our mission to make air travel safer."