HLSS645 forum

Please Follow directions or I will dispute 
please answer original forum with a minimum of 250 words and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 100 words each 

page 1 Original Forum with References 
page 2 Heath response with references 
page 3 hildreth response with references 

OriginL Forum 
Analyze and critique the safety and emergency management structure found in the port environment, and discuss the supporting plans and programs typically found in a major port operation. As part of your discussion, judge the legislative policies developed to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a WMD attack at a major port. In your opinion, are the current legislative security policies sufficient to secure and protect US ports? Explain.

Student response 
heath
Good afternoon classmates and Professor. I apologize for being late with this assignment. I have been busy directing the setup of maintenance operations at a TDY location in Northern Sweden.
I am not sure if I am not using the correct verbiage or if being in Sweden is providing different results than I would normally receive when conducting research, but I have spent hours trying to find sources to utilize for this post. The few that I do find are ~2003 era and I feel are so out of date that they are not relevant anymore. Therefore, I will do my best to provide some thoughts on this week’s topic.
              From the course we have read or discussed the roll of the Captain of the Port. Their responsibility is over a single port or a series of ports and provide a single point of command and control for all responding agencies in the event of an emergency like an attack at a port. The agencies could be local law enforcement like the county sherrif or city police, state police, FBI, and the Coast Guard. Through this position, they have certain abilities to control or even stop all operations in the port if it is deemed necessary to prevent, stop, or recover from an emergency situation.
              Some of the major ports in the country and even around the world may have a trained private security force that is responsible for the day to day security as well as be able to rapidly respond to an emerging threat as it is identified. This would enable them to quickly eliminate or reduce the threat thereby preventing damage to the port and hindering operations.
              Each port should have a port security plan in place to assist in responding to emergencies. The plan should include general information about the port’s facilities, its organizational structure, security levels and associated changes in threat posture, duties of the port security personnel, a communication plan, and responses to security threats, incidents and breaches (Port Facility Security Plan, 2019).
Based on discussions earlier in this course, I believe we have improved our port security operations, but they can stand to be further strengthened.
-Heath
Source(s):
Port Facility Security Plan. 2019. https://assets.gov.ie/69904/94c51cc61541454b969d1ec26f38d36b.pdf

Hildreth

The Port of Virginia’s safety and emergency management domain is managed by the Maritime Incident Response Team (POV MIRT) and provides on-scene assistance and is the liaison to the United States Coast Guard and other State and Local Incident Commanders when responding to an all hazard type of incident.  The POV MIRT also supports the maritime response capabilities via program, training, drills, resources and continued support and coordination through partnership programs (POV MIRT, 2021).
The POV MIRT also follows the dictums within the Transportation System Sector-Specific Plan contained in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP).  Specifically the Sector Goals and Priorities of which there are four.  All four goals fit in the emergency management and safety domain for the POV MIRT organization.  Goal 1 pertains to the management of security risks posed to the physical, human and cyber sectors. Goal 2 pertains to response, recovery and coordination capabilities in support of whole community resilience.  Goal 3 pertains to the effective and efficient sharing of communication across the myriad of agencies and polities.  The POV MIRT communicates and coordinates with 11 cities, 9 counties, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Virginia Marine Police, Virginia State Police and the United States, Navy Regional Mid-Atlantic organization as well as other State and Federal agencies.  Goal 4 pertains to all hazard preparedness and resilience for the maritime transportation system (NIPP, 2013).  In addition to the guidance and protocols contained in the NIPP, the POV MIRT also follows the Five National Preparedness System mission areas; which are: Protection; Prevention; Mitigation; Response and Recovery (NPS, 2011).
References:
NIPP. (2013). National infrastructure protection plan. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security      Agency. Washington, D.C.  Retrieved from: https://www.cisa.gov/national-infrastructure-   protection-plan
NPS. (2011). National preparedness system. United States Department of Homeland Security.     Federal Emergency Management Agency. Washington, D.C.  Retrieved from:   https://www.fema.gov/pdf/prepared/nps_description.pdf
POV MIRT. (2021). Maritime incident response team. The Port of Virginia.  Retrieved from:             https://www.portofvirginia.com/