You can see the massive Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach when you fly out of LAX headed home. Forty percent of all shipping comes in or out of this port and if for any reason it shut down, it could cost the U.S. one billion dollars a day. To ensure security,. we are onboard a 55-foot scanning boat, being run by the LA County Sheriff’s Office and shared with other state, local and federal agencies like the U.S. Coast Guard.

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Out here on the water, it’s all about a combination of federal state and local law enforcement deploying the most advanced detection team in the world, to protect the LA-Long Beach port complex against a possible terrorist attack. Using our wireless broadcast unit, we are about a mile from our satellite truck, cruising between massive cargo boats onboard this new, state-of-the-art, first-in-the-world radiation detecting patrol boat. Not only do cruise ships call this home, but this is the nation’s largest port complex, accounting for 40% of the imports and over a billion dollars of economic activity every day.

Given this, its obvious why it’s such a tempting target for terrorists. So the team employs this boat, a pod that’s mounted on the side of an LA Sheriff helicopter and something as simple as a good sniffer.

To list it all out…3-million dollar boat, 220 thousand dollar pod for the helicopter and Johnny Ringo the chemical sniffing dog, are all first of their kind anywhere. We are getting a close and impressive look at al three. The team more than welcoming as we look over their shoulder as they do the work to ensure our safety.

The technology mounted on the helicopter and boat can detect radiological elements by just pulling alongside any boat entering the harbor, from small fishing and pleasure craft to huge, ocean-going cargo container ships. Also, lets say intelligence gathered by the Coast Guard points to a ship coming into port off shore, the multi-agency team would be able to push this first line of defense further out to sea, rather than waiting till potential attackers dock and their cargo is unloaded and screened. Basically they could fly the helicopter out and the boat could go right along with it.