Securing U.S. ports: law enforcement takes to boats around vital waterways.

THE PORT OF BALTIMORE IS A tough beat to police. The challenge of such a dynamic environment--a shipping nexus, tourist attraction, venue for special events and a thoroughfare for cruise ships--has prompted Maryland's transportation authority to create a marine unit to enhance security.

The move is emblematic of a nationwide trend to place more law enforcement into boats. Coordination among U.S. Coast Guard personnel, state police, first responders and local cops is essential to enhancing security on the nation's waterways, officials told National Defense.

In 2004, the Maryland's Transportation Authority Police established their first marine unit to impose a presence on the water around Baltimore. A little more than a year later, the unit has three boats, and can stay on the water for 24 hour, seven-day stretches. Maryland's transportation police share responsibility with the city police fleet, state environmental police, city fire department, several county sheriff departments and the Coast Guard.

"Law enforcement before 9/11 was territorial, except for some task forces," said Maryland Transportation Authority police captain Gary McLhinney. "Now the Coast Guard offers joint training for people not too familiar with the harbor side."

With port protection high on the list of Coast Guard duties, its area of responsibility has been brought even closer to the shoreline. At the same time, state and local cops are taking to the water for added security. The result either could be an increase in chaos or capability, depending on the way it's coordinated.

The Coast Guard recently has been hammering out more memorandums of agreement with local and state law enforcement, bridging land and sea operations between federal and local players. The agreements are the service's preferred tools of coordination with state and local enforcement.

Coast Guard policy offers great latitude when it comes to forming these pacts. Each operational commander is allowed to write the agreement in a way that makes the most sense for the environment. In Maine, details covering the Bush family residence and escorting Navy ships have been put into agreements. In New Jersey, state police are incorporated into plans to protect high-value waterfront targets. "It's really being left to individual Coast Guard units," said Chief Petty Officer Paul Rhynard, spokesman for legal affairs at Coast Guard headquarters. "It's important to be flexible. No two ports are alike, and no two places have to same security needs."

Common focuses for these agreements include specialized training, equipment sharing, detention of suspects and responsibility for criminal prosecution. Whether merging assets under a unified command during special security events or deciding who will process charges against drunken boaters, memorandums of agreement are the preferred tools for Coast Guard, state and local cooperation. "We're a force multiplier for each other," Rhynard said.

In Baltimore, a memorandum of agreement paved the way for the state's marine police unit to receive training from the Coast Guard, which instructed members on boat-to-boat prisoner transfers, survival and rescue skills and other law enforcement sea craft. Future training will encompass shooting firearms from vessels, boarding procedures and other tactical matters that may prove necessary while on patrol, transportation police officials said.

To keep an eye on the exposed coastlines, the Coast Guard has been relying on volunteers from its auxiliary to be proactive in policing local waters and recruiting help from the public. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 2001, Coast Guard units around the country developed local waterway watch programs to encourage reporting of suspicious activity.

The program went national this March. The Coast Guard is providing materials and guidelines to encourage the development of comparable surveillance programs at other locations.

"This is a program similar to neighborhood watch, in which law enforcement organizations coordinate crime prevention with local citizens," said Adm. Thomas Collins, Coast Guard commandant. "We're asking the public to be aware of and report suspicious activity, particularly near bridges, tunnels, fuel docks, industrial facilities and other sensitive locations."

However, there is no replacement for trained law enforcement personnel when it comes to providing persistent protection on the water, especially when it comes to securing ports. Success there has benefits that go beyond the war on terrorism, an official noted.

Ports are economic drivers, and the state governments are eager to demonstrate advantages to lure business. The Port of Baltimore, for example, serves as a major trans-shipment point for imported automobiles. With added policing of the port, vehicle thefts at the point of arrival decrease--there were zero reports of stolen cars in 2004, for example--and car companies, consequently, are more inclined to enter into shipment contracts. Mercedes Benz recently signed a $20 million contract with the Port of Baltimore. The deal is a tribute to Baltimore's prime location as much as its anti-theft policies. But ports are competitive, and security can add value for customers.

Transportation police are also on the lookout for oil spills and illegal dumping, as well as suspicious or unauthorized behavior. Environmental crimes and boater safety receive additional boosts when more law enforcement takes to the water.

The lead agency for any incident is the one that first responds, according to Maryland Transportation Authority Police Sgt. Ronald McElwee, the marine unit's commander. As the situation evolves, more assets can be called; fire department vessels, dive or helicopter teams from the city or boats from state environmental police, he said.

This flexible structure is not dependent on boat-to-boat communication, but on the quick interchange of dispatchers and exchanged cell phone numbers between crews, he explained. The network of law enforcement extends up the channels and into the Chesapeake Bay, where a growing number of sheriff's departments are establishing a presence in the waters of their jurisdictions.

McElwee's fleet includes two boats that were built by SeArk Marine Inc., a 36-foot vessel that was purchased and a 25-foot boat that is leased. An 18-foot Boston Whaler motorboat rounds out the small police flotilla, none of which have yet been given names. McElwee said he would like to augment the three boats with some small craft, whose shallow drafts provide access to inlets and piers that mark the shoreline.

So far, Maryland has paid for its police boats with transportation department funds, not grant money. McElwee hopes that federal grant money can be used to buy more boats and upgrade communications equipment.

State and local municipalities are lining up to buy small craft as they try to fulfill their new security mandates, said Ken McFalls, SeArk's vice president of sales.

"As homeland security funds become available, we've seen a domino effect," he said. "One department sees someone else has one, and they want one. It's been very good for us."

There is more at work than 'I-want-a-pony' syndrome, however. Securing the waterways at the local level is more a matter of organization in the face of new operational requirements. "They're trying to gain this capability because they've all been tasked with this responsibility," McFalls said. "They're figuring out who is responsible for what."

SeArk Marine's customers come in many shapes and sizes, from large cities to small agencies, from a police unit buying a small fleet to a group of cash-strapped counties pooling their resources to put a jointly staffed boat on a shared patch of water. He estimates that in the last two years, domestic sales have risen 50 percent, fueled by state and local police purchases.

The addition of state-owned marine units, theoretically, provides eyes and ears to the entire homeland security and defense communities, which clearly are concerned with closing gaps in littoral security.

The Maritime Transportation Security Act, signed by President George W. Bush in November 2002, standardizes the measures of the domestic port security team of federal, state, local and private authorities and requires the establishment of maritime security committees and plans for facilities and vessels that may be involved in a transportation incident.

After 9/11, a slate of local and federal agencies and associations joined an existing partnership between the Coast Guard and the city of Baltimore. This group, now dubbed the Maryland Maritime Security Group, involves nearly 20 agencies, including the state department of transportation and its trio of boats.

The agencies that share responsibility for the harbor also collaborate on terrorism exercises, simulating attacks on cruise ships and weapons strikes in containers. The lessons of these tabletop simulations are meant to closely bond the many, and growing, players involved in a response.

This emerging waterway security effort ideally has links within the hierarchy at the state and federal levels. Maryland, like many states, has an anti-terrorism advisory council. Their council established a Maryland coordination and analysis center that is commanded by a local police captain and resourced with federal, state and local law enforcement personnel. It is also a main point of contact for the areas joint terrorism task force that is led by the FBI.

Since half the port facilities belong to the private sector, law enforcement constantly needs to provide outreach to the industry players, said Mike Collins of the Maryland secretary of transportation's office. Various committees and subcommittees established by the council and Port of Baltimore exist to bring in these players, he noted.

Baltimore is an inland port, so much of its international cargo is prescreened at other locations--Philadelphia and Hampton Roads, primarily. The Customs Department, however, is installing radiation detectors and vehicle and cargo inspection system gamma-ray machines to screen trucks and containers, Collins said. These sensors will be in place by the end of the year, he added.