Port Security A Concern As Funds Shrink

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, Bridgeport made its summer marine police unit a year-round effort to protect the port, where oil, coal, bananas and pineapples arrived on ships from Colombia, Costa Rica and Indonesia.Police officer Ed Martocchio signed up for the harbor patrol, motivated by 9/11. Today, he remains on alert.“I spend every waking hour and some sleeping hours worrying about them,” Martocchio said of terrorists, dragging his hands down his tanned face while patrolling the harbor by boat one hot August day. “What are they going to do next? Where are they going to do it?”Martocchio, 43, boards tankers with the Coast Guard to check the passports of the international crews, giving him a front seat on the war on terror.“I went from being an ordinary city cop to someone who can potentially have an international impact,’’ he said.