Discussing how the Houston Ship Channel Security District supports the safety and security of the Ship Channel, Gary Scheibe said his mission is relatively simple: to protect the supply chain of the district.
“It’s not just the wharves, it’s not just land, it’s not just the air,” he said. “It’s pipelines, it’s rail, and it’s everything that’s out there that keeps this economic community running.”
Scheibe chairs the Houston Ship Channel Security District and is security manager/facility security officer for Shell Deer Park Chemical and Refining facility.
Addressing the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region board and membership meeting held recently at the Pasadena ISD Career and Technical School in Pasadena, Texas, he referred to the security district’s overall “Project Design Philosophy” as “good business principles.” Attention to leveraging existing infrastructure, proven technology, projects that are scalable and easily expandable and a “quality over quantity” mindset all contribute to good budget stewardship, he said.
The security district employs layered security strategies, including integrated smart technology and surveillance systems, as well as both landside and waterside patrols.
“There are a lot of examples of layered security,” Scheibe explained. “In your house, you have a door. The door has a lock on it, and you have an alarm on it. And not only do you have an alarm system, you also put cameras around your house.”
The district, he said, is similarly protected.
“We put layers and layers and layers around us. Each layer — like smart technology, and surveillance of our land, water and air — is there to protect and defend,” Scheibe said. “Our desire is to deter not just terrorism but criminal activity in general, and to have the technology that helps identify these criminals, arrest them and get them off the streets.”
Ever-evolving smart technology
The district’s integrated smart technology systems, Scheibe elaborated, include more than 100 miles of hardened fiber, fully integrated and operational network systems, more than a half dozen major system nodes for sensor aggregation and information sharing.
“Smart technology tells us if there’s a vulnerability and what we can do to mitigate that vulnerability,” Scheibe said.
The Houston Ship Channel Security District began to implement a “technology refresh” of its surveillance system in 2014.
“All the technology we’ve had for five or more years is in the process of being refreshed,” Scheibe explained.
The surveillance system currently consists of 19 landside and 14 waterside sites, all equipped with cameras, sensors and other various detection equipment. The sites are monitored on an ongoing basis by the Houston Ship Channel ’s Office Security Monitoring and Analysis Group, providing video links to regional partners including the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Services and Port of Houston Authority Police Department. Vessel Traffic Services’ cameras are focused on all vessels coming up and down the channels.
“I can’t tell you how many there are; that’s the kind of information we don’t usually share, but we have quite a few of these cameras,” Scheibe said. “Our technology tells me I have movement out there.”
Despite advances made in technology, there’s a distinct balance between technology and what Scheibe called “the human aspect.”
“We will never get rid of human personnel unless we live long enough to see everything replaced by robots,” he joked. “A combination of technology and people can make the right decisions for the right response.”
For more information, visit www.hscsd.net or call (713) 671-0947.
