The baggage carousel area at John Wayne Airport was nearly deserted at 5:30 a.m., except for the mustachioed John Reichardt with his big smile, hearty handshake and warm greeting.

"This level will be packed around 10:30 am when the first flights from the East Coast arrive,” he told a visitor. He then took the visitor up to the ticketing level where the line for the security screening stations grew longer by the minute.

If they see a person looking lost, they offer help. “We give out a lot of directions. The first question we usually get is, ‘where is the restroom?  Not everybody is a frequent flyer.” 
Reichardt is 68, a retired postal worker and sign painter.  He is one of more than 30 Professional Services Responders who help staff John Wayne Airport. They wear black polo shirts with an embroidered PSR logo on the left side and they carry a distinctive PSR badge, which says “Civilian Responder.” New uniforms are on order and will include a windbreaker.    

The program began in May and the responsibility of the PSR is to act as an extra set of eyes and ears for the deputies working security at the airport. They help out travelers when they can, finding wheelchair attendants and even carrying luggage for parents flying with more youngsters and baggage than they can manage on their own.

PSRs work with sheriff’s deputies and sheriff’s special officers looking for suspicious luggage and parcels and inspecting truck deliveries bound for shops and restaurants on the secure side of the terminal to guard against bombs and contraband.  They help with traffic control and look for suspicious persons during security breaches. 

Reichardt typically works three eight hour shifts at the airport each week and the program has come a long way since it was started in May.  

“This success is because of the work of Airport Operations Training Deputy Lionel Luna,” Reichardt said.  “The first month nobody knew who we were.”

Luna, training deputy at the Airport, said he was skeptical when told the Professional Services Responders would be joining the sheriff’s team at John Wayne Airport. 

“When this program started I didn’t know what a PSR was,” Luna said. “I only expected about three or four volunteers to show. Instead it was about 15.” The number of volunteers has doubled since then. 

“In five months they have been accepted and now have almost total access in the Airport, almost as much as I have,” the deputy said. 

When the program began, volunteers were allowed in “non-sterile” areas of the airport only.  Access to “sterile areas” near the aircraft boarding gates was through a security screening station staffed by the Transportation Security Administration. 

The airport security badges and the level of access that goes with them are controlled by JWA’s security coordinator, Deputy Airport Director Scott Hagen. 

Luna spends two to three hours with each new volunteer. He looks for and encourages the friendliest volunteers. 

“Their job is to assist passengers and give us an extra set of eyes and ears,” said Luna. 

“We don’t want people who get in other people’s faces,” said Reichardt “We want to be eyes and ears. We’re not a cop on a beat.” 

The PSRs have become well accepted at the airport.  Reichardt makes his rounds several times a day and makes small talk with employees ranging from those who clean the bathrooms to those who fuel the planes and manage the operations. 

“The PSRs have become a fixture at the airport. Everybody knows them,” Luna added. 

When the new PSRs first arrive at John Wayne, they are sent to the security area without an airport security badge.  It is a test to see whether other airport employees will challenge the newcomer.    

“It helps us with security. If somebody challenges them, they get an attaboy. If they don’t challenge we tell them gently, but firmly, that they need to do so,” Luna said. 

The airport has volunteer greeters, who wear red sport coats and provide information to the passengers. The PSRs do that and more. 

“I’ve been here for four security breaches,” said Reichardt. “The gates come down at the security stations and there is a lot of noise and movement. People want to know that is going on. So far in the ones I’ve been here for it’s just been somebody walking off with a bag that had not been cleared and they catch him and bring him back in 10 minutes.” 

In addition to reassuring the passengers, the PSRs also watch for anything suspicious. There is always a chance that the security breach could be a diversion for a crime or attack. 

If somebody is spotted, Reichardt has his cell phone and the number to call for emergency help. If the cell phone isn’t working, he gets to a white courtesy phone and calls for help. It is his job to alert the deputies to what he has observed. 

One of the most exciting moments in his time at the airport was participation in a drug search. Investigators had reports that one or two of the hundreds of workers on the ramp area were selling drugs. An early morning inspection of several employee lockers was carried out with Reichardt and other PSRs keeping an eye on employees to see if anybody threw anything away or acted in a suspicious manner. 

“The good news is that there were no arrests, no drugs were seized and reports of illegal drug selling by airport employees ended,” said Luna.   

“We got a letter of appreciation from Captain Dennis DeMaio,” the commander of the sheriff’s airport operations division, Reichardt said.       

Reichardt joined the PSRs at the urging of his daughter Victoria, a deputy coroner with the department. His wife Patricia Reichardt is an office technician with the sheriff’s Community Services Division. The couple has been married 47 years. 

“I haven’t flown in about 30 years,” Reichardt admits. He drives to Wisconsin to see family and friends rather than take to the air. His assignment at John Wayne Airport hasn’t changed his mind about flying, but he loves the terminals. 

He has also made some good friends working with the PSRs, including David Schnur, 80.  Schnur is a retired dentist and one time military officer who piloted Air Force One for one of his patients, President Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower. 

One of Reichardt’s favorite discoveries at the airport is the fossils he finds embedded in the tile. 

“It was dug out of an old lake bed in Germany and taken to Italy to be cut and polished. There are lots of fossils in the tile.” 

On several occasions while looking over the floor for fossils, he has found lost property, including jewelry and driver’s licenses. 

“People have to have the driver’s license out and sometimes they drop it,” he said. “When I find it and give it to them without their having to go to the lost and found, they’re very appreciative.” 

“The use of PSRs at the Airport has been more helpful than initially expected,” said Lt. Michael Mullen. This was partially due to Captain Dennis DeMaio and Reserve Division Captain Dave Wilson giving the program their full support.  

“The PSRs serve as a force multiplier. We have 10 million passengers a year come through here and we need to be able to reach out to more people. They serve as a visible presence, they give high visibility.” he said. 

That much was expected.

The unexpected was the value of having people who come from a wide range of backgrounds outside of law enforcement,” Mullen explained.

“Veteran law enforcement officers generally have come to their airport assignment with similar backgrounds. It’s good to have people with different experiences,” said Mullen. “They see things with a different set of eyes and bring different issues to us. They keep us moving.”