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The Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport

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Before entering the field, the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, I expected an intense underground web of crime underneath the painfully safe, intense monotony of the airport I experienced as a passenger. What I found rather a sociological perspective fueled by the analyzation of seemingly mundane events—the seeming monotony I dreaded has the same complexity of such things like a Hollywood style drug bust when looked through the sociological thinking lens. I gained access to the site through an opportunity discussed in class, provided by a peer. After exchanging emails with the head of airport police, I was given the specific instructions to meet at the appropriate location inside the airport. The airport itself was a mixture of newer and older wings, a sprawled out city of nearly empty hallways. Almost all of the airport was effected in some way by the in process renovation so finding locations was sometimes an issue, and even caused some confusion among the staff at times. On Wednesday, October 5, after two light rail and an escalator ride, I found myself standing in front of the thick window panes separating the hub of the airport police department from the rest of the civilian’s airport. A common misconception, one I had myself, about airport security is that the police department is synonymous with the TSA, but the airport does in fact have a basic yet fully functioning separate police department. Complete with holding cells, desk cubicles for report

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