MarPortSecurity LLC

EXERCISES

There will be many exercise requirements when new regulations are implemented, and Port Security Committees are organized by your local Coast Guard Captain of the Port. MarPortSecurity can manage your exercise needs at the facility, vessel or port levels of participation. Our personnel have spent years managing these programs for oil and chemical response under CERCLA and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Our expertise in these areas will ensure your exercise program links with response actions under your existing consequence management plans.

MarPortSecurity can design and conduct several different types of exercises to test your readiness to respond to security incidents. We will first determine what it is you want to test. If you do not have a security plan we will help you prepare one. If you have a well developed plan then we can immediately begin an exercise program that involves a full range of response actions.

The main point to consider before you decide to have an exercise is that you must first have some type of plan or set of procedures to test or "exercise". It does no good to have an exercise if its only purpose is to put on a show, or test a security force that has not been given direction on how to respond or the opportunity to plan different security scenarios.

Exercises are essential elements of an effective security system. Plans, and their component people, procedures and equipment need to be regularly exercised. MarPortSecurity can design, coordinate and conduct a variety of exercises to help train, prepare and validate your ability to respond to various accidental or intentional incidents. The lessons learned from these exercises will be incorporated into your Security Plan or used to revise other procedures.

There are various levels of exercises that can be conducted at your facility, on your vessel or involving your entire port. They can be internal to the company or involve external agencies and organizations. They may also be announced or unannounced.

Notification drills are the simplest and they test communication links with company personnel and/or local, state and federal agencies. This may sound simple, but valid phone, cell, beeper and fax numbers are the key to initiating an actual response when one is needed.

The next type of exercise is a "table-top" exercise that involves putting various key decision makers in one location and giving them several security related events to discuss and to simulate response actions. Table - top exercises are more involved than notification drills, and develop the decision-making ability of your security force, supervisors, managers or other executives. Personnel talk through various scripted scenarios to arrive at response decisions consistent with your Security Plan and other consequence management plans. These may involve actual phone calls to test communication links, but they do not initiate the actual movement of equipment or personnel to the scene of the
simulated event.

The next level of exercise is one that combines the elements of the above drills and actually involves the movement of personnel and equipment. A typical scenario might involve MarPortSecurity personnel attempting to penetrate your facility or vessel from land or sea, and then planting a simulated device next to a critical piece of equipment or tank. Any number of scenarios can be put in motion to make this event rather simple or complex. Safety is paramount during this type of event. A security response is by definition a response to a potential or actual illegal event. Detailed safeguards will be built into the exercise to ensure no one is inadvertently hurt, or becomes overly excited.

A successful exercise is not necessarily measured by the number of correct decisions or actions, but by the limitations or problems encountered by exercise participants. Exercises are intended to identify weakness at a time and in an environment where there are no consequences. It is better to make the mistakes during an exercise than to discover them during an actual inciden