Thread: Security spotlight focuses on port workers, checks required

Security spotlight focuses on port workers
Background checks required for credential
By Ronald W. Powell


UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 19, 2008


The security push at the nation's airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is now unfolding at U.S. ports.


Beginning next month, more than 200 San Diego Unified Port District employees who work at its two marine cargo terminals and its cruise ship terminal must submit to background checks to qualify for a federal Transportation Worker Identity Credential.


The new identity card, which must be obtained by longshore workers, truck drivers, rail employees and representatives of private companies who work at the terminals, is another in a series of federal efforts to make the nation's ports more resistant to terrorism.


The specially-coded cards are tamper-resistant and probably will be issued late this summer.

After that, people doing business at the terminals without the credentials will have to be escorted.


"This will be a major change in the way ports operate," said Ron Popham, director of the Port District's maritime division. "We will have to keep a master list of cardholders and continuously update it."


After Sept. 11, 2001, Congress targeted airports for immediate security upgrades. It next began focusing on ports, believing they could be portals for terrorists.


The government began fortifying ports by disbursing grants to install surveillance cameras, build fences, improve lighting and other measures.


The cards intensify the security spotlight on the people who work at port facilities.


A contractor for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration will conduct background checks, including a review of criminal history, immigration status and whether the person is on a terrorist watch list.


Workers will be photographed and all of their fingers will be fingerprinted. Popham said the port will pay $137 per background check for each of its employees who is required to have a card.


Cards will be good for five years, then will have to be renewed.


Popham said a card-reader system is being developed that eventually will be installed outside the marine terminals to allow entry only to card-holders, but he doesn't expect it to be available for about two years. The government is interviewing vendors.


Until the card-reader system is in place, Coast Guard personnel will conduct spot checks at port terminals, scanning the identity cards with hand-held devices to verify authenticity.


Ten of the nation's largest ports, including Long Beach and Los Angeles, have already undergone the background checks.
"We're in the second tier of ports undergoing the credentialing," Popham said.
He said he is contacting officials at those ports on the program's fine print.


One of the questions Popham said he wants answered is whether someone who fails a background check will be re-evaluated.
Federal officials anticipate more than 750,000 workers nationwide will be required to obtain the credential.


At San Diego's port, cement, steel, newsprint, bananas and other produce are among the goods that arrive at the terminals and are removed by truck.


The Port District has started preparations for the heightened security measures at its 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, southeast of the downtown San Diego Convention Center.


Port officials are in negotiations with Kelco Co. to buy 4 acres east of the terminal, where the port is considering construction of a checkpoint. The card-reader system could be established there, preventing backups of trucks and vehicles entering the terminal.


Kelco Co., which is known for its kelp-based products, has been in operation in Barrio Logan since 1945. It would continue its operations on its 20 remaining acres.


The Port District has budgeted between $4 million and $8 million to buy the property.


Among the district's facilities, the Tenth Avenue terminal covers 96 acres and has 1 million square feet of warehouse and shed space. The National City Marine Terminal covers 125 acres and has 350,000 square feet of warehouse and shed space. And more than 190 ships visit the cruise ship terminal throughout the year.
Ronald W. Powell: (619) 718-5070; ron.powell@uniontrib.com
**
*Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... ntity.html *

*SAVE THIS | EMAIL THIS | Close*
*Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article.
**
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ? A Copley Newspaper Site

If you read this you can see they are worried only about who gets in the the terminals, but it's who and what comes out of the terminals that really counts. Yes people anyone can walk right out of a terminal and not even be looked at. The only thing someone can carry in or out of the terminal thought the turnstiles is their own ass. Hell they have to make sure those dangerous American workers can't go to work if they don't want them too. Not that vetted id isn't needed especially for the truckers...