MIAMI — The Coast Guard is scheduled to facilitate a multiagency homeland-security-related incident exercise in Key West, Fla., Monday.
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.
These exercises will be used to evaluate multiagency preparedness, awareness, prevention and response to a homeland-security-related incident near Key West.
Participants of the exercise include:
•U.S. Coast Guard
•Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
•Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
•U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
•Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
•Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
•U.S. Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD)
•Flordia Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
•Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
•Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
•City of Key West
•Westin Resort and Marina
•Keys Energy
•Tourist Development Council
•Caribe Nautical
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 eighteen 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.
