MIAMI — The Coast Guard is scheduled to facilitate a one-day, multi-agency homeland-security-related incident exercise in Port Miami, Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The homeland security exercise is based on the Area Maritime Security Training and Exercise Program (AMSTEP). The AMSTEP is focused on building relationships within the Federal Maritime Security domain to write, review and update the Area Maritime Security Plan in addition to supporting other transportation entities that rely upon the port being secure. As the Federal Maritime Security Coordinator, the Coast Guard has the lead in coordinating such exercises.
This exercise will be used to evaluate multiagency preparedness, awareness, prevention and response to a homeland-security-related incident in or near Port Miami.
Participants of the exercise include the following federal, state and local agencies, among others.
•U.S. Coast Guard •Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)•Customs and Border Protection (CBP)•Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) •Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) •Miami-Dade County Police Department•Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department •City of Miami•Port Miami•South Florida Fusion Center•The Salvation Army
AMSTEP BACKGROUND:Per the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002 regulations as stated in 33 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 103.515, Captains of the Port (COTPs) and Area Maritime Security Committees (AMSCs) shall conduct exercises to test the effectiveness of the Area Maritime Security Plan (AMSP) each calendar year, with no more than 18 months between exercises. As a critical element in the Plan-Train-Exercise-Evaluate-Document preparedness cycle, these exercises are a mechanism by which Federal Maritime Security Coordinators (FMSCs) and AMSCs continuously improve preparedness.
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