Service Providers Get Ease of Access onto Coast Guard Base with RAPIDGate System

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Some Kodiak residents remember when they could just saunter onto the Kodiak Coast Guard base whenever they wanted. Well, it’s not getting any easier for the average Joe to enter the base, but it will be easier for people who perform services for the Coast Guard on a regular basis.

A set of protocols through one program means service providers – like a gardener for example – may sign in once and bypass the entry procedure next time.

An identity management company, SureID, runs a program called RAPIDGate that helps organizations screen individuals.

Jim Robell, president and chief operating officer of SureID, says RAPIDGate works with civilian companies and their employees so that the Coast Guard can quickly verify their identities when they enter the base.

“That’s good from a security perspective that they have a high confidence that the person’s been properly vetted, sponsored, and that they’re credentialed so they really are who they claim to be, and then it’s much faster for these people that are in the program, because they don’t have to come to the visitor center and get re-vetted every time they try to get onto the United States Cost Guard base Kodiak.”

Robell says the process could be an option for anyone who enters the base a couple of times a month or more. It would increase ease of access and decrease time spent going through security measures.

He says today at 3 p.m. there will be a vendor “brief” or info session in the Coast Guard base administration building, and RAPIDGate will begin enrolling companies tomorrow.