By LEONARD GRAY

RESERVE – With all the media attention paid to airport security, ports have gotten little attention, but the Transportation Security Administration has been hard at work, nonetheless.

“Ports are an incredibly more complex beast,” commented Brian Turnmail, TSA public affairs specialist. The agency now comes under the U.S. Department of Transportation but will soon be in the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Since the TSA was created on Nov. 19, 2001, the federal agency has been hard at work, coordinating with local agencies to provide risk-assessment profiles, especially as to how it relates to terrorist threats.

The TSA awarded the Port of South Louisiana $624,000 to fund their risk-assessment study, which will be completed by March 31, according to Executive Director Joseph Accardo Jr.

Steven Froehlich, TSA director of stakeholder relations, said nearly $5 million in grants have been awarded to Louisiana ports for similar studies and capital improvements, including $3 million for New Orleans, $80,000 for Baton Rouge and $200,000 for Lafayette.

TSA is now taking applications for new security improvement grants, drawing from available funds of $105 million, for port and cargo protection.

“The role of the TSA is the security manager of the national transportation system,” Froehlich added.

Among the steps being taken at various ports include fencing, security cameras, vessel tracking systems, explosive and metal detectors and a new transportation employee identification card.

Capt. Ron Branch of the U.S. Coast Guard, who is the Captain of the Port of New Orleans, added, “Without risk assessments, we don’t know how to focus our efforts.”

Branch said that since 9/11, this is the first time agencies and industry have pooled their efforts. “We want one big umbrella of security over the lower Mississippi River,” he said.

Added to such efforts is the newly-launched Louisiana River Watch Program, which hopes to galvanize community support in being extra eyes for suspicious activity.

James Hynes, director of field operations for the U.S. Customs Service in New Orleans, spoke of the Container Security Initiative, which places officers in foreign ports headed for the U.S. to verify cargos before leaving their docks.

Said Hynes, “It’s needed, the time is now, and the threat is very real.”

To report suspicious activities on Louisiana waterways, call the U.S. Coast Guard National Response Center at 1-800 424-8802 or the Louisiana Homeland Security Office at 1-800 434-8007. Both numbers are manned around the clock.