Former official outlines DHS plans
Expanded use of technology, possible outsourcing top Department of Homeland Security agenda
By Toby B. Gooley, Managing Editor -- Logistics Management, 5/1/2006
NEWPORT, R.I. — In her last official act, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning Elaine Dezenski offered an inside look at the agenda of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Dezenski, who left the agency in early April, spoke last month to attendees of the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) annual conference in Newport, R.I.
Dezenski's speech and her responses during the question-and-answer session that followed were unusually frank. Her comments covered a lot of ground, but one theme surfaced repeatedly: DHS intends to rely on more technology—and possibly on outsourcing—to improve national security.
DHS is convinced, she said, that hiring more people for C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) validation teams, sending more inspectors to foreign ports under the Container Security Initiative, adding one or two data elements to manifests, and inspecting more air cargo will not significantly improve security. "The way to achieve transformational change is by managing risk," she said. "The question is, what tools do we need to achieve that?"
One of those tools could be the "Secure Freight" program that DHS hopes to pilot within the next 12 months. The agency currently gets much of its information from carriers' manifests, but a database encompassing a wider range of data from more sources would enable more accurate risk assessment.
Under Secure Freight, DHS would set standards for what information is needed but a third party would collect data from multiple sources and fuse that information into a single database. "We think we're not the best party to capture and assess data. Secure Freight would push risk assessment out to those who have a better relationship to the data," Dezenski said. The program would function as another layer on top of Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) existing shipment-targeting initiative.
Although better use of technology is high on the agency's agenda, DHS is not ready to mandate any particular type of electronic seals or similar equipment for inbound ocean containers, Dezenski said. For one thing, false-alarm rates are still too high. And seals alone are not effective enough, she added. "We need a six-sided solution. Why put an electronic seal on a door when you can still drill into the front of the container?"
The conference followed CBP's release of new C-TPAT security standards by just two weeks, and attendees had many questions about the program, especially concerning the slow progress of security validations. "Discussion rages" within DHS over whether or not companies that submit written security plans under C-TPAT are actually doing what they say they're doing, Dezenski said. But CBP will never have enough staff to quickly validate all 8,000 C-TPAT members' security plans, so there is talk of hiring third parties to conduct on-site evaluations. That may have to include foreign organizations if the United States is to have a truly global security structure, she added.
A domestic version of C-TPAT is "definitely something we've talked about," but air and ocean cargo security will continue to be higher priorities for DHS, Dezenski noted. If and when a domestic program is adopted, it's likely that hazardous materials transportation will be the first area targeted. Effective risk-assessment technology must be in place first, she said.
It's widely believed in the international trade community that it's just a matter of time until C-TPAT, now a voluntary program, becomes mandatory. But Dezenski seemed to think that such a scenario was unlikely. "There's not a lot of support within the department to regulate C-TPAT," she said. The main reason, she continued, is that changing regulations is cumbersome and time-consuming, while C-TPAT's status as a voluntary program provides DHS and CBP with the flexibility to quickly make changes in response to industry concerns and changing trade conditions.
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