The Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) is a

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

(DHS) program and part of the

SAFE Port Act The Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006 (or SAFE Port Act, ) was an Act of Congress in the United States covering port security and to which an online gambling measure was added at the last moment. The House and Senate passed ...

of 2006. It uses non-intrusive Inspection (NII) and radiation detection technology. It also gathers data to measure trade activity for risk-management and protection of United States international trade. The Secure Freight Initiative builds on the current partnership between the Container Security Initiative (CSI) and the Department of Energy's Megaports Initiative. The two sides of the Secure Freight Initiative are: the

Container Security Initiative The Container Security Initiative (CSI) a.k.a. the 24-Hour Rule was launched in 2002 by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Its purpose was to increase security for container ...

, also known as the ''International Container Security scanning project'' and the

Importer Security Filing The Importer Security Filing (ISF) also referred to as 10+2, is a customs import requirement of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ; which requires containerized cargo information, for securit ...

Program. A third pillar was to have been the Global Trade Exchange (GTX), a data acquisition program which was funded as part of the Homeland Security Budget for 2008 and 2009, but is delayed and remains under study. The Secure Freight Initiative was kicked off in end-April 2007, with the commencement of the International Container Security project. The ICS is in pilot phases and is working to develop appropriate means to verify the safety of transport containers, using scanning technology including radiation portal monitors, non-intrusive imaging equipment, and optical character recognition systems. ICS is being implemented in foreign ports;

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

(United Kingdom), Port Qasim (Pakistan), and Puerto Cortez (Honduras) will become the first seaports to implement the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) in October 2007. These ports began by scanning all maritime containers destined for the United States for nuclear or other radiological materials. Data from these systems is then provided to U.S. officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center for analysis. A second leg of the SFI came to light vis-a-vis the new

(ISF) program, also known as "10+2,". The ISF, "10+2" program was put forth as a risk-management program, part of the DHS strategy to assess and identify high-risk U.S.-bound maritime transport shipments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secure Freight Initiative (Sfi) United States Department of Homeland Security