Protecting Maritime Ports in U.S.

Protecting Maritime Ports in U.S. Following the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, the federal government and state and local agencies have revised security plans, to protect their cities and ports from potential future attacks. Among the vulnerable areas of the United States in terms of potential terrorist attacks are the 361 ports in the U.S., most of which rely on receiving shipments from foreign sources.

This paper reviews the steps that should be taken -- to assure safety for the actual facility and equipment, for the workers, and for the public in a nearby community -- when a new port is being proposed for the New Orleans area. The Recommendations for Securing U.S. Port Safety Stephen Caldwell was acting Director of Homeland Security in 2006 when the GAO examined the procedures for keeping ports safe and testified before the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance, and Accountability.

His recommendations apply to any new port facility to be constructed in New Orleans. Caldwell called for "Information sharing between federal officials and nonfederal officials" -- some of it classified -- that will enable the Coast Guard, which has ultimate responsibility for port protection.

Moreover, Caldwell testified that it is very important at every port to set up "operational centers." Those centers must have: a) the latest leading edge technologies (computers, databases, networks, sensors) in order to monitor all vessels approaching, their home port, their cargo, their history; b) they must be led by established security departments that represent all valid stakeholders in that region; and c) the centers must be linked to all federal, state, local and private sector participants (Caldwell, 2006).

On the subject of good communication between all the agencies that provide port security, Captain Dennis L. Bryant of the U.S. Coast Guard notes that communication has been (prior to the terrorist attacks) "highly inconsistent" (Bryant, 2001, p. 19).

Writing in the journal Traffic World, Bryant emphasizes that prior to 2001 and the terrorist attacks, captains guiding the container ships and other vessels coming into any given port -- in this case, it would have been vessels heading for New Orleans -- did a good job notifying "local facilities and local agents of their requirements." But Bryant acknowledges that the word did not reach the master at sea or the home office for an "extended period," and this level of communication has to improve.

Subsequent to Bryant's editorial, of course, new policies and processes have been put in place, and the communication has seen vast improvement. Many procedures for port safety are authored on Coast Guard Island, part of the city of alameda, where Coast Guard professionals keep their eyes on about 10,000 vessels "…on any given day," Carl Nolte writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. The procedure that is most important for the Coast Guard -- the "weapons system" -- is not gathering information but the careful analysis of information.

"We track and predict events," said Coast Guard Commander Rocky Cole; the Coast Guard knows who is driving every ship, what the cargo is supposed to be, when it is expected into which port; and the Coast Guard receives this information from the CIA (that tracks vessels from satellites), from the Navy, and from news reports. Any suspected smugglers or terrorists are identified long before they come into port, so the local port authorities have been fully briefed on potential threats well ahead of the arrival of the vessel.

In conclusion, the security of ports is in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard. They have the best technologies available to help them respond to terrorist threats and they are on constant watch for suspicious activities. The new port to be built in New Orleans needs to be totally in sync.