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Fewer Intruders Get Over Security Fences At McCarran Airport

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Fewer intruders are getting past security fences that protect McCarran International Airport runways than years past.

The Las Vegas airport finished putting razor wire atop its 15 miles of fencing in early 2015. Breaches dropped from eight in 2014 to one in 2015 and one in early 2016.

At the same time, an Associated Press investigation shows intruders breached perimeter security at the nation's ninth-busiest airport more often than officials disclosed.

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When AP first asked, McCarran searched to the start of 2009 and found 21 breaches. Federal and other records show six breaches in 2007 and 2008. In a seventh, in 2009, a man climbed over a gate and began preparing a helicopter for flight.

Officials say their original search required hand-checking thousands of police log entries.