Ridge calls for private sector to do more about port security
Seaports have received much less money from DHS than airports, and former DHS chief calls on private industry to do more on the security front
Private companies need to up the ante in securing the nation’s ports from terrorism, Tom Ridge, the former homeland security chief, said at the second annual Homeland Port Security Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute at the Maryland Port Administration’s Cruise Terminal. “The public sector and the private sector have done a pretty good job, but there’s more to do,” Ridge told Local officials.
Since DHS was formed in 2002, the Baltimore port has received $22 million in federal port security grants, said F. Brooks Royster III, director of the Maryland Port Administration. This month, the government announced Baltimore will receive just $1.9 million in the next fiscal year, down from $4.8 million in the current year. The nation’s 361 ports have received far less federal money for security upgrades than the nation’s airports, to the tune of nearly $20 billion. On average, only about 5 percent of the cargo that comes through U.S. ports is inspected.
Ridge acknowledged that not every container can be inspected logistically. The shipment of goods around the world has become so efficient that slowing it down would cost time and money. For example, he said a 10-day lockout of West Coast dock workers at 29 ports in 2002 during a contract dispute cost the economy about $2 billion a day, according to estimates at the time.
During a half-hour cruise before the conference started, attendees got a firsthand look at the potential economic vulnerability. From the cargo ships that deliver BMWs from Germany and reams of high-quality paper from Finland to infrastructure like the Key Bridge, a terrorist attack — or the threat of one — would cost the state and its companies millions of dollars per day if the port were to shut down. The port of Baltimore handles 35 million tons of cargo a year, representing $35 billion worth of trade and generating $230 million in tax revenue for the state, according to port officials.
