As TWIC is implemented in more ports, hurdles emerge

a fixed biometric reader infrastructure are the secure or restricted areas of a port such as the command centers and port police facilities.

Merkle’s official title is Director of Port Security and Emergency Operations. He describes his main priorities as prevention, detection, response and recovery. In addition to Port Authority’s current credentialing process and access control system, prevention includes a fence line, which is monitored by a closed circuit video system. To improve the detection and response components of security, the Port Authority recently upgraded its command centers with the Situator situation management software suite developed by Orsus. With ten miles of fencing and about 250 security cameras at the Port Authority’s three cargo terminals, Situator helps integrate various technology solutions and ensure that various types of incidents that occur automatically provide the appropriate alerts up and down the chain of command, speeding decision flow, Merkle says. Everyone who needs to know has a common operating picture at their workstations, he says.

The Port Authority is also hoping to upgrade its video security technology with improved analytic capabilities. Its current video analytic technology relies on pixel changes to alarm, but this only works well in areas where it can be turned on when there shouldn’t be any activity, such as a warehouse once the day’s shift is done. Merkle would like smart video that “learns” what is acceptable versus unacceptable so that it doesn’t alert when it does not have to. Moreover, he wants technology that not only can detect an individual intruding where he doesn’t belong, but can also track that person and then hand off to another camera if necessary. “And then take that piece of data you’re collecting in the dispatch center and push it out to the officer who has to do the response,” Merkle says. “In essence allow the officer to look around the corner before they come around the corner.” This capability could be selectively deployed for certain areas of the container terminals, he says.

Merkle also likes prospect of adding license plate recognition technology at terminal gates. The technology could be used to know if a vehicle is entering the terminals’ that doesn’t normally come on and to ensure that a license plate is valid, he says. For the response and recovery part of security, Merkle says having interoperable communications systems is critical so that the various responding organizations can work together.