High-tech ID cards rolling out at New England ports
Devices aid security at sensitive areas. Workers who don't carry the card will either be turned away or escorted to their destinations.
By Brian R. Ballou
The Boston Globe
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BOSTON — New England's ports will become the first in the nation to phase in high-tech identification cards for port workers, adding another layer of security to areas once considered this country's most vulnerable to terrorism.
 (AP Photo/Denis Poroy) |
"The concept itself provides a great level of assurance that the people who have unescorted access to our ports have met federal standards," said George Naccara, the Boston-based federal security director for the Transportation and Security Administration. Those standards include an extensive background check carried out by the TSA.
While the Transportation Worker Identification Credential card is in use in ports in Louisiana, Florida, and other parts of the country, New England's ports have the earliest compliance deadline, Oct. 15. Beginning that date, workers who don't carry the card will either be turned away or escorted to their destinations, officials with the TSA and the Massachusetts Port Authority said last week.
The scannable card serves as proof that a background check has been performed and it contains features aimed at preventing misuse. In addition to a photograph, the card contains a smart chip that carries a copy of the holder's fingerprint. Port and delivery workers, cargo handlers, and other employees who must venture into sensitive or secure areas will be required to submit to a fingerprint scan before entering those locations. The scanning machine will automatically perform a match analysis with the fingerprint embedded in the smart chip.
But it may take several months before the scanning system is operational at the region's ports, cruise terminals, and other coastline facilities such as scrap metal yards.
Those sites will not have scanners for several months, as the contract for the devices will be put out to a bidding process, said Ann Davis, TSA spokeswoman.
Security at Massport facilities is handled by port officers, designated as special State Police officers. The Coast Guard conducts security at other sites.
Massport is using the security card in conjunction with the agency's own identification card, and there is no plan to phase out the Massport card. Spokesman Matt Brelis said "Security is always a multilayered approach and the TWIC card is another layer."
The cards can be used nationwide because the background checks are being conducted by the TSA, Naccara said.
New England began its background application process and enrollment last November. But with the only a week left before the cards become the new form of identification, approximately 3,000 of the region's estimated 8,000 port workers have not enrolled.
Shipments that go through Boston's ports include cargo from large retail businesses, such as Jordan's Furniture and BJ's Wholesale Club, and alcoholic beverages and frozen seafood. Boston's shipyards and terminals are among the top 12 busiest in the country in container shipments and cruises, and ranks at about 25th in terms of the total tonnage that is brought in and shipped out. The liquefied natural gas terminals are among the most sensitive and heavily guarded ports.
Naccara said the TSA, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, is working to get the system operational across the country by April 15, the national compliance deadline.
The cards cost $132.50, a fee that in most cases will be paid by the employer, Naccara said.
Jim McNamara, spokesman for the International Longshoreman's Association, which represents about 45,000 cargo loaders and other port workers from Maine to Texas, said concerns raised by union workers about the cards have been "hammered out" in talks with Homeland Security officials.
We wanted "to make sure that there was a limit in the number of years that the background checks would involve, that someone would not be barred from working at a port because of something they did 20 years ago in college, like a DUI," McNamara said. "We also wanted to make sure there was a fair appeal process if someone was denied, and that the background searches would not be used to target certain people."
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