Port Security Management

Kenneth Christopher, Steven B. Ffflm

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781466591639
• eBook ISBN: 9781000687903
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Business

Sea and freshwater ports are a key component of critical infrastructure and essential for maintaining global and domestic economies. In order to effectively secure a dynamic port facility operation, one must understand the business of maritime commerce. Following in the tradition of its bestselling predecessor, Port Security Management, Second Edit

Part I

History and Organization of Port and Maritime Security

Chapter 1

Introduction to Port Security Management

1.1 GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM: THE CONTEXT FOR PORT SECURITY

Seaports are a critical component of the global transportation infrastructure, but historically they have not been subject to comprehensive governmental regulation and security oversight. The 2001 terrorist attacks on America were a paradigm-shifting event for transportation systems security in general. For the maritime sector particularly, that event prompted dramatic shifts in the focused perspectives on security now required by anyone even remotely affiliated with the management of security of ports, as well as the vessels, conveyances, and people transiting them. In Figure 1.1, a containership is seen departing a port for its next destination; a common occurrence, yet one that illustrates the crucial dependence much of the world places on the ability to move commodities securely using many nations’ ports and waterways. Before the specter of global terrorism grew in the world’s consciousness in the late twentieth century, the notion that this fairly routine activity might be vulnerable to significant harm was mainly a concern that occupied the minds of security and law enforcement professionals. What scrutiny has been given to this vessel, its crew, and its cargo as it moves around the world from port to port? What is really inside those metal boxes that move from warehouse to truck to train to ship to port? How closely have the activities of the men and women who transferred the containers onto this vessel been monitored?

Questions like these must be posed by those managing the security of the world’s transportation systems and infrastructure as they confront new, significant, and viable threats. While these managers have always had the responsibility to ensure the safety and security of the passengers, crew, and goods being moved, world events in the last 15–20 years now make us critically examine how well the security of our maritime and port infrastructure is being managed. Within this context, this book’s intention is to provide a basic introduction and user’s support guide to managing security at a port facility. Given the complexities of continuously evolving homeland security strategies, this book is written for those professionals, educators, and students who have responsibilities or interests in securing transportation infrastructure associated with the maritime sector in general, and port facilities in particular.

FIGURE 1.1 Containership leaving port.

The goal of Port Security Management is to provide maritime industry professionals; government law enforcement and regulatory officials; and especially port operators, employees, users, and stakeholders with a basic awareness and understanding of security management in the port facility environment. The book is presented as a tripartite composite of port security management within a framework of organizational structure, risk and vulnerability analysis, and management of security operations. The first part of the book is concerned with illustrating a historical and organizational perspective on maritime and port security. Seaports, as passenger transportation and cargo delivery systems, are unique from a historical perspective because they developed as a function of geographical interfaces between one form of transportation, the seagoing vessel, and another, the land conveyance. Developing initially as enterprises built and operated on land owned by private, military, and/or commercial interests, the layers of security now deemed so essential in a homeland security environment, were not necessarily embraced early on by commercial port interests. The evolution of organized security processes in the maritime sector can be understood as a product of increasing governmental and commercial concerns about the criminal exploitation of seaports, growing use of vessels for the smuggling of contraband and other illicit activities, and rising threat of global terrorism in the late twentieth century.

Second, the management of risk assessment is presented within the context of the unique vulnerabilities within the maritime and port environments. The important relationships between risk analysis, facility security planning, and coordination among port stakeholder business and security concerns provide the framework for understanding the pivotal role of the port security manager in coordinating the diverse interests of port users. The third and most comprehensive component of this book addresses the ground-level issues, tasks, and responsibilities that must be managed by port security, in concert with the port director and his or her staff. The structure for this discussion is based on the Port Facility Security Plan, the cornerstone for the construction of the port’s security program. Component aspects include personnel and physical security systems and processes, access control, security force management, and vessel and cargo operations. The book explores issues related to the growth of multiuse port facilities for recreation, hospitality, and external business and commercial interests in those ports with interconnected relationships in many regions, cities, and towns. The important and complex role of technology in security, especially as related to computer and information security, intrusion detection, and biometrics, provides the reader with current perspectives on balancing physical and human resources in port protection systems. The need to develop contingency and emergency operations plans, and to work effectively with federal, state, local, and private enterprises, in coordinating both routine and emergency response mechanisms, enables the reader to develop a well-balanced perspective for working with all parties to achieve productive outcomes. Finally, the book explores the role of intelligence in port security. How effective are the existing and developing processes for the gathering and sharing of intelligence between the public and private sectors? Since the 9/11 attacks, fusion centers, interagency cooperation, and an increasing role for the military have become components of critical infrastructure and homeland security planning. How have these processes worked to improve the management of security in port facilities?

The primary reason why a book like this is important is that it provides a basic foundation for understanding the need for developing a culture of security in the port facility. Since ports have developed as open systems designed to interact efficiently with external commercial environments, there has been only minimal examination of the coordinating role played by port management in terms of security integration processes. The overwhelming governmental public policy response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks demands effective leadership, management, and coordination of security operations in the port facility. Whether a small or large port, a cargo or passenger facility, the imperative for port managers and security professionals is to efficiently integrate the security function into each and every aspect of port operations. Disparate port functions such as engineering, finance, marketing, human resources, media relations, passenger operations, cargo operations, and many others coalesce within the framework of an organizational culture that emphasizes public confidence in the stability of operations, which comes with efficient and effective security controls.

Port directors and port security managers play pivotal roles in managing the complex interrelationships of port stakeholders necessary to maximize productivity while concurrently generating a safe and secure port environment. Now, more than ever, there is a need for a basic framework for understanding the relationship between risk and vulnerabilities at seaports and the specific ways in which port users can help to reduce the risks associated with those vulnerabilities as part of a port’s overall security infrastructure. By encouraging a culture of security through an appreciation of the management constructs necessary for both effective and efficient port security, this book provides resource-minded industry officials, government agents, port professionals, educators, and students with tools to effectively identify and execute a management strategy for port security.

1.2 A RENEWED SECURITY CONCERN ABOUT THREATS TO SHIPPING AND COMMERCE

In the maritime sector, concerns about incidents of violence and crime against worldwide shipping have taken on renewed emphasis given the global threat of terrorism. While acts of piracy at sea are not a new phenomenon, the ability of criminals and potential terrorist agents to attack relatively defenseless commercial shipping assets and crews at sea outside the purview of law enforcement and security is a significant issue for world security. According to a study conducted by the One Earth Future Foundation (2010), worldwide maritime piracy costs the international economy between $7 and $12 billion annually. Table 1.1 indicates that worldwide acts of piracy against shipping were up by 133% between 2008 and 2011. There were increases in the numbers of piracy incidents occurring in critical regions of the world, particularly on the eastern coast of the African continent. Yet, in 2012 it appears that, in most parts of the world, piracy has actually been on the decline, with a reported 174 attacks in 2012, down from 439 in 2011 (Rai 2013).

While world maritime interests have recognized and responded to the threats of piracy in Asia and the Americas in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the world has become conscious of the emerging threat to shipping along the African coastline. This part of the world provides global conveyance routes for important natural resources, in particular oil from the Middle East and west central Africa. Between 2004 and 2007, Nigeria ranked number one with 20% of attacks on vessels by pirates, likely attracted by Nigeria’s oil wealth. Nigeria is also a major world producer and exporter of cocoa. Most of these attacks occurred at sea off the capitol, Lagos. Between 2008 and 2011, there was actually a decrease in the number of piracy incidents off of Nigeria’s coast; but with 27 vessel attacks off Nigeria in 2012 (Rai 2013) and 22 incidents during just the first 6 months of 2013 (ICC International Maritime Bureau 2013), there is continued and growing concern about the threat to shipping interests along the west coast of Africa. The increase in vessel piracy off Nigeria has also been attributed to the profits made by pirates stealing unrefined crude from tankers and reimporting refined fuel back into Nigeria, a by-product of the growing need for fuel in a country where refineries have not been built to keep pace with the population’s needs (Doyle 2013). This illustrates an important connection between national and regional economies and maritime security, which suggests security planners must be vigilant in scanning the political and economic horizons for diverse threat vectors facing the maritime sector.

TABLE 1.1 Acts of Piracy, January–June, 2008–2011

Region/Country	2008	2011	Percentage Change
Asia (total)	46	65	+41
Indonesia	13	21	+62
Malacca Strait	2	0	–100
Bangladesh	7	4	–43
Rest of Asia	24	40	+67
Africa (total)	64	191	+198
Nigeria	18	6	–67
Somalia	5	125	+2400
Rest of Africa	41	60	+46
Americas (total)	4	9	+125
Rest of world	0	1	+100
Total	114	266	+133
Source: ICC International Maritime Bureau, Piracy and armed robbery against ships, Report for the period of January 1–June 30, 2012, http://www.icc-ccs.org/piracy-reporting-centre/piracynewsafigures, London, ICC International Maritime Bureau, 2012.

India and the Gulf of Aden have also experienced high numbers of piracy. There have been attacks in India primarily against small vessels and attacks in the Gulf of Aden involving the hijacking and taking of vessels to ports on the eastern coast of Somalia (International Chamber of Commerce 2008). In 2007, 31 attacks on ships were reported off the coast of Somalia, compared with just 2 in 2004. Pirates were reported to be using more weapons than in the past, with at least one report of a grenade launcher being used (Peril on the High Seas 2008). Between 2008 and 2011, as Table 1.1 shows, there was a 2400% increase in the number of piracy incidents in the region adjacent to Somalia. In February 2008, Somalia’s transitional federal government formally requested assistance from the United Nations (UN) Security Council for combating piracy in its territorial waters. The United States worked with other UN member states, most notably France, in drafting a UN Security Council resolution authorizing states to take steps to assist the Somali government in deterring, preventing, and suppressing acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast (U.S. Department of State 2008). In 2012, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2077, urging member nations to fight sea crimes, pass legislation criminalizing piracy, and assist Somalia in prosecuting pirates (Posner 2012). Kumar (2012) suggests that a decrease in piracy attacks in 2011 can be attributed to stakeholders’ use of practices designed to reduce the risks of piracy and violence on the high seas, including multilateral naval coalitions with warships on antipiracy duties, and armed guards called vessel protection teams. The perspective is supported in a widely reported 2012 study showing an 80% decrease in the number of seafarers attacked off Somalia between 2011 and 2012. The decrease has been attributed to “intelligence-centric and proactive targeting of pirate action groups by international navies, the increased use of the procedures outlined in the most recent version of the shipping industry’s Best Management Practices for Protection against Somalia Based Piracy (see BMP4 20...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• PART I HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF PORT AND MARITIME SECURITY
• PART II RISK MANAGEMENT, PLANNING, AND COORDINATION OF PORT SECURITY
• PART III IMPLEMENTING A PLAN FOR PORT SECURITY: MANAGEMENT TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
• Glossary and Organizational Resources
• Bibliography
• Appendix
• Index