Ports to Get $27 Million to Tighten Security
LOS ANGELES
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will receive more
than $27 million in federal grants to beef up security at
the nation’s busiest harbor complex, federal officials
announced.
The grants, which will be spent on new patrol boats, improved surveillance equipment and new command centers, go at least part way toward addressing what some local officials have said is a shortage of funding for measures to guard against terrorism.
More than 40 percent of the nation’s shipping moves through the ports, and some officials have been lobbying Washington since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for money to protect the harbors. Until recently, the complex had received only about $5.8 million since the attacks for improving fencing, cameras, communications and other on-site security systems, harbor officials said.
However, the two ports also have received money from the federal government under Operation Safe Commerce, a program designed to ensure that products can travel “through the supply chain” from overseas manufacturers to retailers in the United States without tampering, said William Ellis, the director of security for the Port of Long Beach.
The program will bring together ports, private businesses and federal, state and local officials to promote technology to monitor the security of cargo containers, Ridge said. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach; Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; and the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey are participating in the program.
The new grants from the Transportation Security Administration are part of about $170 million in federal funding for the nation’s major harbors, announced in New Jersey by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
The money, available immediately, will go to both governmental entities and private companies. It will come from two grants. Under the first, totaling about $18 million for the two-port complex, the city of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach will get the largest share, about $10 million. Under the second grant, the complex will divide about $9 million more.
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