FBI, Coast Guard don’t play well together, report says

FBI, Coast Guard don’t play well together, report says    The FBI and the Coast Guard need to do a better job coordinating how to respond to a terrorist incident in the maritime arena, according to a report by the Department of Justice’s inspector general.
   Last fall, the Bush administration released its National Strategy for Maritime Security designed to make sure all maritime security programs across the government were aligned and did not overlap. But the strategy did not resolve the potential conflict between the Coast Guard and FBI over who is in charge for responding to a terrorist incident in a port or at sea.
   “Unless incident command and other coordination issues are resolved in advance and response scenarios are exercised, the overlapping nature of the FBI’s and the Coast Guard’s responsibilities in the maritime domain may result in confusion and interagency conflict with the FBI in the event of a maritime incident,” the report said.
   The Inspector General’s office recommended that the two agencies also share best practices learned from maritime counter-terrorism exercises. The FBI should set priorities and allocate resources according to the high risk of maritime threats, make sure that all field offices enter into a database threats and suspicious activities at seaports, and improve maritime-related intelligence gathering.
   Positive steps taken by the FBI to enhance maritime security in the past three years include creating maritime liaison agents at FBI field offices to coordinate with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, establishing a maritime security program at FBI headquarters, creating special incident response teams and establishing a database track threats and suspicious incidents at seaports and elsewhere.
   The report said that there is less potential for conflict between the FBI and CBP because CBP’s role is more limited to cargo security.
   Lack of information sharing and coordination between agencies on terrorism was one of the primary reasons for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
   To read the report, go to: https://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0626/final.pdf .