Author: Kenneth Christopher
ISBN No: 9781-4665-9163-9
Review date: 16/12/2025
No of pages: 356
Publisher: CRC Press
Publisher URL:
http://www.crcpress.com/
Year of publication: 06/08/2014
Brief:
Port Security Management: Second edition, by Kenneth Christopher. Published 2014 by CRC Press
price
£46.39
While a guide to port security management is written by an American for a US audience, that matters little.
The author endears himself in a preface by admitting that after serving as a Florida police commander he found himself unprepared for law enforcement and then security of the Port of Miami. Early on he makes two points of use to readers in fields beyond ports: the need to understand business, and management, besides doing security. And besides, 9-11 happened and the field of homeland security sprang up in the States, and in particular the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. As that name suggests, port security crosses borders; it’s little use securing your port, if the previous port of call of a vessel allowed terrorists or contraband cargo on board. This book, then, arose from experience; for one thing, ‘nothing good gets done without collaboration and co-operation’. It’s about more than fencing and lighting (though such physical security does matter, and does get covered in the book). Some topics will be unfamiliar to the landlocked security man, such as sonar. Others such as gates and access ID do apply on land. Having set out the security challenges – from stowaways to hazardous materials that might be converted into weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to organised crime at work on the docks – the author offers chapters in terms of risk management, and ‘security as a management function’. And in case a port is not complex enough (think of it as a system, Christopher advises), it has to work to deadline and to be open to expedite cargo and people. And all the while the shipping world is changing – take the rise of giant cruise ships for instance. While the US laws are different, much of the regulation and procedure is international, and the UK reader can easily apply the thorough, well-laid out knowledge in this book.
Pictured: Port of Belfast, dawn.
Port Security Management: Second edition, by Kenneth Christopher. Published 2014 by CRC Press. Hardback, 356 pages, £46.39. ISBN: 9781-4665-9163-9. Visit www.crcpress.com.
