Coast Guard to Review Biometric Devices in Bid to Make TWIC Cards More Secure

This story appears in the April 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

The U.S. Coast Guard is beginning to review how biometric devices should be added to federal transport security cards that are becoming mandatory for truckers and everyone else who wants access to secure port areas.

The Coast Guard, which administers the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, said in its initial proposal that a new card with biometric information would be required for only those who work with ships carrying hazardous cargoes or ships carrying more than 500 passengers.

Biometrics recognize people based on their unique physical characteristics, using such factors as facial recognition, DNA or the shape of a person’s hand and palm.

In the March 27 proposal, truckers who carry shipments to or from container ships that carry consumer goods and manufactured products would not have to obtain the biometric card.

The filing by the Homeland Security Department agency is important because it outlines the agency’s ideas and gives carriers and others an opportunity to offer their opinions and influence the agency before it starts a formal rulemaking process.

It’s also important because the introduction of the biometric card reader is the second and final stage of the TWIC program that was created to stiffen the nation’s defenses at ports. Because measure is now just a proposal, there are no formal rules in it and no scheduled implementation date. Comments on the proposal must be filed at the agency before May 26.

“The purpose of this [Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] is to open the public dialogue on implementing TWIC reader requirements,” the Coast Guard said in the filing. It “presents preliminary thoughts of the Department of Homeland Security, through the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Over the past two years, more than 1 million people who work in secure port areas have obtained the TWIC card, which is designed to prevent terrorist attacks by keeping unauthorized persons out of port terminals.

Anyone who wants access to secure facilities will have to carry the card, starting April 15.

Over the past five months, the Coast Guard has been phasing inthe requirement to carry the current version of the card, which includes a photo but lacks biometric information.

The country’s largest port complex, Los Angeles/Long Beach, and Houston, which has the most tonnage because it handles bulk oil and chemical vessels, are in the last group of ports where the card requirement will be imposed, starting April 14.

In the proposal for a card with biometrics, three different risk groups were created, based on the Coast Guard’s assessment of vessels’ potential as terrorist targets.

In the highest-risk category would be ships carrying 1,000 or more passengers or dangerous cargoes such as ammonium nitrate or other chemicals that could be detonated. The biometric card would be required most often for workers coming into contact with those vessels.

The middle category would include vessels with 500 to 1,000 passengers and less risky cargoes, such as oil. Biometric cards for workers handling those vessels would be checked at random, except at times when the security threat risk was increased.

The third category proposed would be for general cargo vessels and smaller passenger ships, where the biometric card would not be needed because the risk of attack was deemed to be the lowest, according to the filing.

Under current rules, the TWIC cards are required in port sectors that the Coast Guard has designated as secure areas. Truckers and others without the cards must have an escort to move through those secure areas.

Congress established the TWIC program in a 2002 law and added more details about the card reader requirement in a security measure that became law in 2006. The final rule that established the first phase of the program was published early in 2007, and enrollment began later that year.

The pilot testing process for biometric readers began last year, but the standards won’t be set until formal rules for the biometric version of the card have been established.