Thanksgiving Travelers Find Police Out In Force At LAX After Worldwide Travel Alert

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Thanksgiving holiday travelers arriving at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday found plenty of police present and tougher security screening, just days after the State Department issued a worldwide travel alert.

Officers armed with automatic weapons and dogs were patrolling on foot, on both bikes and Segways at LAX, which is annually among the busiest airports in the country during the Thanksgiving travel period, with a record 2.1 million passengers expected.

LAX officials advised travelers to be prepared for tougher screenings at security checkpoints and to provide themselves extra time to get to and through all airports.

"You're just seeing a lot more of it, because you're looking for it," one LAX security officer said. "We can't really say what we've done, of course, we don't want anybody reverse-engineering what we do, but we've changed our posture."

Just days before the busy Thanksgiving travel rush, the U.S. State Department issued a rare worldwide travel alert amid possible risks of increased terrorist threats. There have been multiple attacks by extremists in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Turkey, Lebanon and Mali on large sporting events, theaters, open markets and aviation services.