Boston is first port for implementation of identity card rules


Good news, Boston! Coast Guard SWAT teams will not be swarming into the port this week to check everybody’s TWIC.

That’s a promise from Cmdr. David Murk, the Coast Guard’s program manager for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential.

The SWAT team bit was a joke, but TWIC compliance isn’t. Beginning on Oct. 15, the Coast Guard will begin spot checks to see that workers at Boston and other ports in New England have the biometric ID cards in hand. Anyone who doesn’t will not be allowed into secure areas without an escort.

“Our inspectors will be out doing a spot check of a lot of aspects of facility security, and TWIC will be one of them,” Murk said. He emphasized that the TWIC is one of many layers of port security. “TWIC is an upgrade to existing access control. Without one, a worker is not going to be allowed on the facility.”

The Coast Guard and its partner in TWIC, the Transportation Security Administration, have set April 15, 2009, as the absolute deadline for port workers to have a credential. Earlier this year, the Coast Guard laid out an enforcement timetable that’s designed to encourage those who are holding back to get “TWIC-ed” and avoid a last-minute rush.

Enforcement begins on Oct. 15 in three captain-of-the-port zones that cover the Atlantic coast from Maine to Rhode Island. Murk said the agency based its decision on population projections of potential TWIC holders, and how many had signed up for cards.

“The goal of phasing in was to alleviate a surge at the end, and to get a perspective on a smaller scale how enrollment and compliance were going to work,” Murk said, adding that the Coast Guard is working with the TSA to get the word out about getting enrolled.

“We’re in good shape,” said Mike Leone, director of the Port of Boston. Not long after the TSA set up shop in Boston in November 2007, port employees enrolled in the program and received their cards.

“The truckers were slow to start, but we have had an education program for them,” Leone said.

There may be some problems on compliance day because a handful of drivers who do not make regular dray runs may not have gotten the word.

Leone estimated that 70 percent of all port employees have their TWICs. Container operations should not be disrupted, but some passenger terminal employees may find themselves stuck outside the gate. The deadline comes in the middle of the tourist season, and some bus drivers and ticket-takers mistakenly believed that they had until April 15 to enroll.

Almost since enrollment began a year ago, the TSA has compiled cumulative statistics that track the number of workers who have started enrollment and activated their cards — the point where the worker takes possession of the TWIC. The agency has published weekly “dashboards” that chart the numbers. Observers point out that by now, the line that shows the number of activations should be converging with the line that shows total enrollments.

The national statistics indicate that the rate of TWIC activation is picking up, but slowly. As of Sept. 26, nearly 180,000 workers out of 527,820 who enrolled had not activated their cards. One out of three workers has not activated his or her card, but two months ago, activations were slightly more than 50 percent of enrollments.

According to the TSA, some 60,000 cards are in the middle of processing, but the other 120,000 are gathering dust waiting to be picked up. The TSA has begun to directly notify enrollees to come get their cards. Some 73 percent have done so.

The numbers in Boston are showing a steeper rise. According to the Sept. 26 dashboard, 71 percent of TWIC enrollees had activated their cards. In comparison, in Norfolk, where enforcement will begin on Jan. 13, 54 percent have activated their TWICs. Los Angeles and Long Beach have nearly 70 percent activation. Enforcement will begin at the twin ports on April 15.

Last month, Maurine Fanguy, the TSA’s director of maritime and land credentialing, told a congressional subcommittee that an estimated 1.2 million workers will need TWICs, up from an initial 750,000 estimate when the agency first embarked on the program. Some 43 percent of those who need a TWIC have enrolled, and fewer than 30 percent have activated their cards.

Murk and Fanguy say the dashboard data don’t tell the full story. Murk said the TSA has sent mobile enrollment centers out to sites where large numbers of employees need a TWIC — a petroleum refinery, for example. While hundreds had enrolled, the mobile center had not returned to deliver the cards. In other cases, mariners have enrolled, but went to sea before their cards were ready.

“It’s hard to look at the overall numbers. We’re looking at it compliance date by compliance date. I see the graphs weekly, and you’ll see spikes of enrollment and activation,” Murk said.

At Boston, some 1,000 port employees and dray drivers must have TWICs, but Leone said the figure does not include employees at petroleum and liquefied natural gas terminals in the harbor. It also doesn’t count workers and fishermen at smaller ports such as New Bedford and Plymouth, Mass., who also need cards.

Fanguy said the TSA and the Coast Guard also have stepped up their efforts at publicizing the need to enroll, and the Coast Guard is doing surveys to monitor progress.

“We’re seeing surges in both enrollment and activation. It’s a constantly moving target,” she said. “Tell people we’re here ready to activate their cards.” TWIC enrollment centers are now sufficiently caught up that it should not take longer than 10 minutes to complete the process.

Murk said some workers held back in the belief that the five-year validation period began when the TWIC is activated. Wrong. It begins when the expiration date is printed on the card. “Phasing in enrollment is good for us because we can target the areas as they’re coming into compliance,” Murk said.

The Coast Guard will be limited at the outset to verifying the card holder’s photo, checking the expiration date and making sure no one has tampered with the card. It’s a sore point with the program’s critics in Congress and industry that the $132.50 TWIC is not much more than a pricey flash pass because the Coast Guard does not have the equipment to read the card’s biometric data.

On Sept. 18, the Coast Guard let a $2.2 million contract to Science Applications International Corp. to build up to 300 handheld card readers. An artist’s rendering shows a square device about the size of three TV remote controls that can read the card’s microchip or magnetic stripe. Murk said the Coast Guard has made an initial order for 69, which are to be delivered in 90 days.

Boston will continue to have its own credential in addition to the TWIC, Leone said. While the TWIC says a worker is eligible to be within the gates, it doesn’t automatically give him permission. That’s up to port administrations. For example, a union member may be suspended for a few days for violating work rules. It’s not a severe-enough infraction to get his TWIC pulled, but the port still would want to keep him or her off the dock until the suspension is up.

For delivery drivers, contractors and others who don’t visit every day, Leone said the port is devising an escort program. Various employees will be certified by the port security department, and used to escort specific groups. Someone from the sales department may escort prospective business partners, or a member of the engineering staff may be certified to escort a maintenance contractor.

Fanguy and Murk remain upbeat about the prospects of every worker having a TWIC in hand by April 15, 2009 — or nearly everyone. “The population estimates are just that — estimates. They’re as close as we could get to what we think the population is in a specific area,” Murk said. “We’re comfortable that the majority of the population has a TWIC. Do we have to get to 100 percent enrollment? Probably not. There are people in that population that may not need access every day, and may not need their card for another month or two.”

Ready or not, the Coast Guard will stick to its compliance schedule over the next six months, Murk said. The only exception may be made for Gulf ports hit by Hurricane Ike. He declined to give details because the agency has not made an official announcement, but according to the TSA, the largest enrollment center in Houston, and centers in Galveston and Beaumont, Texas, remained closed as of Sept. 29.

“Our goal is to approach (TWIC compliance) as we always do with facility security. The captains of the port can adjust resources and conduct inspections however they see fit.

Enforcement is scalable, from education all the way up to letter of warning to a civil penalty,” Murk said. “From an overall compliance standpoint, the compliance date is the compliance date, and we’re not moving it.” 

More information is available at
http://homeport.uscg.mil
www.tsa.gov/twic