Ben Lane, CIPRNA event manager, met with Harbor Chief Police Melanie Montroll of the Port of New Orleans. She is a 21-year veteran of the force and serves as the department’s first woman Chief of Police.
The following is a transcription of their conversation.
Ben Lane
I work for the team running Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience North America, the event happening in Baton Rouge, March 7-9, 2023. Really pleased to be talking with you today.
Melanie Montroll
Sounds good. And you.
Ben Lane
I gather you are the second generation to be working at the Port. Your father was there before you – is that correct?
Melanie Montroll
That is correct.
Ben Lane
Lovely family line there.
Melanie Montroll
Yes, absolutely. Runs in the blood!
Ben Lane
Yes. Port NOLA is an important piece of infrastructure, obviously, within Louisiana. And it is a topic of conversation that will come up in the conference next year in March. Please explain broadly the work that you and your team do at the Port.
Melanie Montroll
Okay, so I am the Chief of the Harbor Police Department. We are a full-fledged law enforcement agency that is responsible for keeping port tenants, workers, visitors safe when they visit the Port of New Orleans in our jurisdictions. So, we are a dedicated law enforcement, safety and security agency. We provide law enforcement services throughout the waterways within the port’s three jurisdictions, which is Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard Parrish. Now, our mission is to contribute to the homeland defense by ensuring the safe, secure, efficient flow of cargo and cruise passengers for all the tenants and visitors that come through here.
Ben Lane
How do you view present emerging threats within your jurisdiction? What can you talk about in that area for us?
Melanie Montroll
So, as a critical infrastructure, the Port of New Orleans is working diligently to prevent cyber security risks, including identity-based cloud security threats, social engineering attacks or phishing, mobile security attacks, ransomware, and remote working. Our approach is we use a layered approach, solutions, to mitigate any potential threats. And obviously, on the law enforcement side, we work closely and directly with our IT department 24/7. That is continuous for us.
Ben Lane
Have you got a comment on the physical side? Any emerging threats that you can talk about on the physical side?
Melanie Montroll
Sure. On the physical side, obviously being a modern, multimodal gateway for global commerce and an in-demand cruise port, physical security is always going to be an issue for us, especially in terms of critical infrastructures. So, the physical threats we see, obviously are terrorist attacks. Obviously, drug smuggling, immigration. Those are all issues that we face as a Port, and our approach has always been to be proactive and to work with our federal partners, state partners, to ensure that we are keeping the Port and its tenants and visitors safe.
Ben Lane
I suppose that sort of does take us on a little bit more onto the protection side. So, we’ve talked about threats. What steps, broadly, are you using to protect yourself, protect the Port, protect your tenants and visitors? What are the steps you’re taking there?
Melanie Montroll
First and foremost, our main step is actually being proactive instead of reactive. We are a proactive law enforcement agency. So, things that we do are visibility, proactive patrols, definitely collaborations with other federal partners. We work with the Coast Guard. We work with customs. We work with the FBI. We work with other law enforcement agencies that are in this area to make sure that we collaborate on threats that are not only facing the Port but facing the city and the state. So, it’s definitely going to be a proactive approach, staying ahead of threats, staying up to date with current technologies. We were just awarded a FEMA grant here to upgrade the technology at the Harbor Police Department’s Maritime Securities Operations Center, and that will give us the latest technology, allow us to keep the collaboration, and allow us to update cameras, barriers, fences, to make sure that we keep the Port safe.
Ben Lane
Can you give it a few words on the resilience side of your activities?
Melanie Montroll
It is imperative for our teams to use multiple overlapping solutions to build protection. This method ensures that if one system is compromised or fails, an overlapping system can catch the potential threat and mitigate it before it causes any real harm. And again, that ties into the investments in our infrastructure, the investments in technologies, and one good thing about the Port is we do have an IT team that’s dedicated 24/7 to law enforcement to make sure that we can stay on top of being resilient and making sure that as times change, as threats change, we stay ahead of that.
Ben Lane
There’s a cascading issue that we’re talking about at the event, where one element of infrastructure, telecommunications for instance, drops out and causes an impact elsewhere. How do you view that in terms of the Port of New Orleans?
Melanie Montroll
The Port of New Orleans follows cybersecurity policies that are a key roadmap in responding to present issues. Our IT and HPD team have worked together to establish policies that not only protect employees but protect infrastructure and port tenants as we work to maintain a safe and secure, efficient, flow of the cargo and cruise passengers that come through here.
Ben Lane
That cascading effect on other big infrastructure within the state and beyond, do you have ideas around that and how that might be working for you?
Melanie Montroll
As I said, we are a very collaborative agency, so obviously what affects us affects other agencies, and vice versa. So yes, we are obviously diligently working to make sure that we stay in collaborative efforts with other agencies. But the key here is collaborating with those agencies, ensuring best practices. If they learn something new, they’ll share it with us. We’ll share with them. And we have a lot of teams, and we have a lot of exercises that we put on. We put on tabletops, but not only just the Port of New Orleans, but in the surrounding agencies, to make sure that we are all on one message.
Ben Lane
Okay, that brings us back to the point about being proactive.
Melanie Montroll
Absolutely. Absolutely. We are definitely proactive. Obviously, when the city was hit by ransomware a year ago, that was a big impact on everybody. So, it’s not waiting for something to happen, it’s being prepared for when and if it does happen so we can rebound from that.
Ben Lane
I’m so delighted always when I speak to people like you, people like you in that seat, and you’re protecting us and you’re doing the things that you need to do. We could talk for hours. Your history, the 21 years of service you’ve given, as well, is remarkable.
Melanie Montroll
It’s a privilege and an honor for me to be in this position. It’s definitely something I’ve dedicated my life to.
Ben Lane
Thank you for your time.
Melanie Montroll
Thank you.