by David Ball
Staff Writer
The St. Johns River is beautiful from the surface, said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Chief Roy Henderson. But down below, the water can be an unwelcoming environment for Henderson’s team of inspection and bomb squad divers.
“The St. Johns River is a dark water river with swift current and lots of underwater debris,” said Henderson, who heads the Homeland Security and narcotics divisions. “You can really only dive it on slack tide to get anything done. It’s hard to complete a mission in that 45 minutes to an hour on slack tide.”
Those missions could include investigating a boating accident or a structural collapse along the Downtown shoreline or inspecting ships and bulkheads at the port for terrorist threats. “They can be difficult assignments,” said Henderson.
But JSO will soon get a definite advantage by being able to see what’s underwater without actually going underwater, thanks to new sonar technology being deployed for the first time by a local law enforcement agency in the U.S.
The Coda Octopus Group is slated to deliver its Underwater Inspection System (UIS) to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office this month. The UIS uses proprietary sonar technology to create a detailed 3-D image of underwater structures that can change and update in real time, similar to a video feed.
The company states the device was first developed through research at University of South Florida, and it has been deployed by the U.S. Coast Guard and used in the Middle East and Asia. However, the technology has some Jacksonville roots.
“It was brought here and used during it’s infant stage during the Super Bowl for security on the water,” said Henderson. “Now it’s a finished product and an important piece of equipment. With the St. Johns running through the middle of the city and all the critical infrastructure we have from Downtown to the port to military bases, it gives us a capability that not a lot of other teams have right now.”
Henderson wouldn’t go into detail about exactly how the system works or how it will be used. “We don’t want to put it out there for the bad guys to find out,” he said.
However, Henderson said he expects the technology to make his security and investigation efforts more effective, efficient and safe.
“It will give us the ability to scan bulkheads or the bottom of the river and create a three-dimensional record we can go back and look at if there is a threat detected,” he said. “We’ll still put divers in the water, but not as often.”
Although JSO will be the only agency with the UIS system, Henderson said the team using the device will be a regional force under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement capable of responding to other areas in Northeast Florida and along the St. Johns River.
Still, the UIS will likely be deployed most often — and used for the most serious threats — at Jacksonville’s port, where security concerns and the threat of terrorism are higher as hundreds of ships, thousands of passengers and millions of pounds of goods pass through each year.
Jacksonville Port Authority spokesperson Nancy Rubin said the UIS will be an important security tool as the port grows at the TraPac terminal under construction at Dames Point, which is scheduled to be open by 2009 and add 158 acres of activity, 1,600 direct jobs and 700,000 container units — effectively doubling the current port traffic.
The nearby 170-acre Hanjin terminal currently in contract negotiations is scheduled to be operational in eight years and add similar numbers of jobs and container traffic.
“We at JaxPort are pleased to hear about any new technology that supports seaport security,” said Rubin. “Still, we believe there is a need for more resources and equipment to keep the harbor secure and will continue to work towards bringing those resources.”
Jason Reid, Coda Octopus president and CEO, said he viewed the Jacksonville order as a “significant milestone” for his company, and for the protection of America’s ports.
“It was shortly after 9/11 that I had my first view of a 3-D real time sonar device in its earliest prototype form, and the company’s commitment to commercialize this technology was indeed inspired by the attacks,” stated Reid in a release. “It has been a long journey, but we always envisaged the ports of the United States as a very large and important market for these devices.”
It was also the modern threat of terrorism that allowed JSO to purchase the Coda Octopus UIS with $491,000 in funding from the Department of Homeland Security. Henderson said the move to buy the UIS was partly because the equipment was needed, and partly because the money needed to be spent.
“We’re always looking at products and cutting edge technology, but every year funding goes down and down and it becomes a competitive process,” said Henderson. “Right after 9-11, there was a lot of grant money made available. Now, homeland security has pretty much defined how you get it, and you have to have a plan and define the gaps in your ability to respond to certain threats.”