by Eric Holdeman: Port Security in the blogosphere
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The FY 2012 grant announcement was made today. In sum:
Port Security Grant Program (PSGP)— provides more than $97 million to help protect critical port infrastructure from terrorism, enhance maritime domain awareness and strengthen risk management capabilities in order to protect against improvised explosive devices and other non-conventional weapons.
This is down from $400M in annual funding from just a couple of years ago. There are some big changes for this grant cycle. One is that the Fiduciary Agent (FA) process is not being used for this year, and I expect will be discontinued into the future. All ports will have to apply directly to FEMA. There are also no funding allocations by Coast Guard Port Sector. The grants are described as being fully competitive.
Ports will compete for grant funds based on their size and which group they are in:
- Group 1 ports will compete for 60% of the funding available
- Group 2 ports will compete for 30% of the funding available
- Group 3 ports will competed for 30% of the funding available
- And, I'm not sure how the remaining 10% will be allocated
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Knowing where everything is located is an important aspect of having good situational awareness. It is important for port security and many other aspects of port operations.
See a video that speaks to how one port, the Port of Los Angeles is using geographic information system (GIS) information to map their port areas and share information among the various business interests at the port and with other regional and national partners. The enterprise wide approach that they have taken is absolutely critical to long term success.
Ports are infrastructure heavy environments that require huge investments in funding to create the transportation and other systems that enable the smooth flow of cargo onto and off of the docks. Knowing the location of this infrastructure allows security forces and others to maximize this knowledge to protect the facilities and utilities to ensure business continuity and the resiliency of port operations.
While most ports and the maritime industry are not known to be bastions of high tech operations, GIS mapping is a 21st century tool that makes good business and security sense.
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Anyone who has dealt with Homeland Security Grants can tell you that nothing is static when it comes to these grants. Since I became involved with Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) it has been as dynamic as the rest.
I'm expecting that the FY 2012 funding announcements will be announced on Friday, February 17th. The AAPA has announced two conference calls on FY 2012 Port Security Grants for next week. Based on what I've read to date it looks to that dramatic changes are coming beginning in 2012 and then full fledged revisions in 2013. See my blog post from yesterday on FY 2013 Vision documents
For the Port Security aspect of this I see the following impacts:
- Only two years for grant performance with no extensions. This means that you will have to buy equipment and construction projects will be very difficult to accomplish in the allotted time available.
- They may open up the grant criteria to allow more options for how the funding will be used. We'll have to see what the guidance says.
- If there are "regional funds" they will be based on FEMA Regions and not the Captain of the Port Coast Guard Sectors. FEMA Regions may start to play a role in port security grants.
- It remains to be seen if states will play any role in port security grants.
- The final review of individual projects will be done back in D.C. by a consortium of people and organizations with expertise in their respective areas of interest.
- It is possible that the Fiduciary Agent option that has been used for Port Security may go by the wayside.
- There could be even more emphasis on disaster resiliency for ports and all-hazards with respect to what funds can be used for. Security will remain a primary objective, but not the only one.
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Resiliency is in reality what our goal for disaster preparedness is all about. The better prepared we are, the more hazards that have been mitigated and the better planning and training that we do will all speed the recovery. This type of effort towards resiliency must occur over all aspects of our society, every industry, government, family, and so on. This then is the challenge!
The National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security targets the maritime industry and its associated partners who are involved in moving goods across great expanses of ocean and land in order to keep business and industry humming along. It is a six page document that outlines goals and a strategic approach.
I found it very interesting that in the cover letter from President Obama that there was this sentence, "We reject the false choice between security and efficiency and firmly believe that we can promote economic growth while protecting our core values as a nation and as a people." I've found that security is seen as a drag on an efficient business operation. It is an unnecessary drag on what needs to be done to keep the system moving. I've often said that security and safety have the same issue. It is always faster and easier to do a task if we don't need to be concerned with both of these. Safety slows us down and keeps us from being efficient as possible. It is only when something bad happens that the safety measures that are in place pay off. So too it is with security. Day-to-day it is a necessary evil getting in the way of an efficient operation. But, when something does happen...
What I like about the document is that it like many others today recognize that we are interconnected and you can't just have a Federal solution. Everyone needs to do their part in government and business to have a safe and secure supply chain. There is also now the recognition that natural hazards are issues that we need to be planning for. While crime and terrorism remain as threats it is probably a natural disaster that will cause the most business disruption.
Cross border cooperation is also needed in a highly competitive industry that is more adept at competing than cooperating with one another. This is perhaps one of the largest challenges we have to overcome. When we think regions in global supply chain issues we are naturally expanding beyond our borders and that feels uncomfortable to those who are unaccustomed to cooperating with others.
Back in the day a "collaborator" was a dirty word. It was someone who was consorting with the enemy. To be successful on the day in which catastrophe strikes will require us to be collaborating with everyone who we formerly competed with and who we may have treated as the enemy. To be successful will require us to form positive relationships before the disaster. Otherwise we'll just be floundering around with no ability to work with one another.
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There is a newer Government Accountability Office (GAO) report out on the Port Security Grant Program Basically it identifies the need to have a better performance measurement process for how grants are being distributed and funding allocated. Not to mention the administration of the grants which can be pretty convoluted.
By the time things are streamlined there won't be any grant funds anyway! I guess that might be the ultimate in "streamlining."
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There was an interesting story in Security Director News about how the "former" Director of Security for Apple got into trouble. See Exit of Apple's security chief offers lessons for security professionals
It is very true that the ranks of private security and government security are heavily populated with former law enforcement officers, or those moonlighting in security positions as security officers and not commissioned officers. When you compare uniforms the security personnel may look very similar to local law enforcement officers. If it is an armed security force they will carry weapons and other law enforcement "tools of the trade."
As the story above relates, it is important to remember what role you are playing. Perhaps 20-30 years of experience kicks in and you fall back on behaviors that you used in the past--but are inappropriate for a private security force.
While you can teach classes on this it is the muscle memory and way of doing things as you have always done them that can take over in a situation. While some of this would be good, such as in a fight to subdue as suspect who is intending to do you or others harm, there are other situations that need to be thought through carefully before taking action.
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Someone told me earlier this year that the maritime industry is not one to adopt new technology easily. While this may be true, the digital age has arrived and is creeping its way into the maritime industry one gigabyte at a time. Inter-dependencies are revealed as systems fail or are compromised. Given the low state of cyber preparedness across the board in the maritime industry it is appropriate that each element of the transportation system from port authorities, shippers and carriers take independent and coordinated action to harden their IT infrastructure.
This is not just a United States problem. A recent Europe assessment of cyber awareness called out the shortfalls across the board. They call for an cyber security awareness campaign because what exists today is "low to nonexistent."
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The recent announcement of the funding levels for FFY 2012 Homeland Security Grants could spell the beginning of the end for the Port Security Grant Program. See my blog post from yesterday FFY 2012 Compromise Homeland Security Funding Bill
There are a number of options for the future when it comes to administering the port security grant funding.
- Given the decrease in funding and lack of a targeted dollar number it is doubtful that the current method of allocating funding based on U.S. Coast Guard Sectors will continue. There is not going to be enough money to spread the funding in that manner.
- It is a good bet that with the emphasis on risk only the larger ports will be offered grant funding and will have to apply for it in competition with other ports nationally.
- One way of administrating port security funding was to have the task accomplished by a Fiduciary Agency (FA). On the West Coast a number of Marine Exchanges have stepped up to assume that role. With a decrease in funding I don't think there will be enough administrative funding available to support the additional personnel to perform that task.
- Port security funding could be rolled into the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and it will be those UASI regions that prioritize their funding allocations and if ports in the respective regions will receive any funding.
- Since individual FEMA regions are being given more grant responsibilities the port security grants could be administer out of the FEMA regions instead of the FEMA National Headquarters.
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If you had asked me six months ago when the DRAFT Final Ruling would be issued by the Coast Guard concerning the Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC) I would have said, "The end of 2011 or early 2012." Now I'm not so sure.
The maritime industry is all over the place on the implementation of TWIC biometric readers. Some ports volunteered to do pilot programs, others have projects underway to install them and then there is group of ports sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens. In the report cited below it is stated that there are ports that intend to do away with their own identification card systems. I personally would not advocate for that due to the relatively low standards of TWIC and the need to control access to your facilities based on a need to be there for a business purpose.
It is the 21st Century and you would think that a biometric identification card would not be that difficult to implement. The problem is that this is a national program crossing many states and there are differing opinions as to the value of the TWIC card and the entire credentialing program.
To find out the full status you can read the recently released GAO Report: Transportation Security, Actions Needed to Address Limitations in TSA's Transportation Worker Security Threat Assessments and Growing Workload It is not a title that will set the world on fire. An alternative title might have been, Transportation Security, We've Got Problems.
I know there have been meetings back in D.C. in the last few months on TWIC. I don't know the outcomes from those meetings. My guess is that the final TWIC ruling might be delayed further. 2012 is an election year and Federal regulation has been a Republican debate topic.
Stand by for news!
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Anytime I read an article about the capabilities of the City of New York I'm always impressed with the size, complexity and diligence with which they do their duties. See The New York Times article Underwater Drones giving More Eyes to Police Harbor Unit as Searches Grow
Perhaps the biggest surprise in capacity that was in this article was the fact that the Harbor Unit has an armada of 34 boats. I expect there are some coastal countries that don't have that many patrol craft.
On the surface (I guess I mean underwater) this is a pretty low tech technology that would allow for a security force to have an underwater security capability without having to fund the human investment in a dive team that would be the typical alternative to doing pier and ship inspections.
For those of us without this technology we are dependent upon the Coast Guard, Navy, Police and Fire to provide dive team resources --should they have them, if they are available and in the case of the Navy there is a specific need.
While many a gizmo has been purchased with Port Security Grant Program funds, this one could be a useful tool for security and other all-hazard situations when you need underwater situational awareness.
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