The Port of Little Rock is seeking a nearly $1 million federal grant to provide around-the-clock security at the 4,000-acre complex, including cameras and automated license-plate readers that will record every vehicle entering and leaving.
The grant also will provide money to build fencing and barriers for the port's critical areas, including the docks and warehouse, said Bryan Day, the port executive director.
"The port is a busy place," he told the port authority board of directors Wednesday. "It has a lot of traffic and a lot of through traffic around the docks. We have people out here on the weekends. We are not a secure facility like some of our colleagues.
"This will give us added security, access to real-time license plate readers to be monitored by the Police Department through their command center. We think it's a good thing."
The port is unguarded and has little weekend activity when "caravanning," vandalism and some minor theft has occurred. Day said the beefed-up security also will serve as another selling point to businesses considering sites at the port.
"We'll know who comes in and out of the port," he said.
Automated license-plate readers are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that are typically mounted on poles, streetlights, highway overpasses or mobile trailers, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in digital rights.
The readers "automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, along with the location, date, and time," according to the foundation. "The data, which includes photographs of the vehicle and sometimes its driver and passengers, is then uploaded to a central server."
In this case, the information collected by the readers will be uploaded to the Little Rock Police Department. The port will not have access to the information, Day said.
The port is applying for a $950,000 grant under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Port Security Grant Program, which typically awards about 240 grants totaling $100 million annually, according to the agency.
Day said the port applied for a smaller grant a year or two ago. The port didn't receive a grant but was told to work with the Homeland Security Department to assess the port's security, which Day said was done.
"They came out and identified some areas where we're weak in, areas where we needed to improve in," he said.
Under the plan supporting the grant, the automated readers would be placed at the port's two main points of entry -- Lindsey Road and Slackwater Harbor Drive.
About 14,000 vehicles travel daily on Fourche Dam Pike, which is the major artery that takes traffic from Interstate 440 to Lindsey Road, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
The port will have to come up with a 25% matching money for the grant, which comes to about $190,000.
"We do have the funding available," Day said.