Oct 31, 2007 9:00 pm US/Eastern
TWIC Cards Key To Port Security In Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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About 20,000 people who work in Baltimore's ports must undergo security checks before receiving the hi-tech TWIC card. (File)
CBS
A plan to make U.S. ports more secure, including Baltimore's, may finally have the bugs worked out.
Alex DeMetrick reports new hi-tech I.D. cards may be here before the end of the year.
To stay secure, Baltimore's port has new hardware in the water, new hardware on land, and a string of terror drills under its belt. But the most important tool may be the Transportation Worker Identification Credential or TWIC card.
"The TWIC card has more tech, more processing power on it, actually twice as much processing power, as that which the Apollo program used to put a person on the moon. It fits in your shirt pocket so that the technology on this thing is extremely advanced because it has to allow any truck driver anywhere in the United States, any port, to get in," said Kep Hawley from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
A congressional committee wanted guarantees Wednesday that background checks for the TWIC card would target the right people.
"Our interest is in finding terrorists and keeping them out of our ports," said Hawley.
That's important to the 20,000 people who work in Baltimore's ports who must undergo the security check and to the thousands of drivers who move freight in and out everyday.
"All the trucking companies, when they hire a driver, have to do extensive background checks on the individuals," said Craig Talbot from the Maryland Motor Truck Association.
But most truck drivers already carry commercial drivers licenses and those CDLs hold a lot of background.
"The police or whoever can take your CDL and run it right quick, it will tell them all about that person and everything. So why should you have some more I.D.," said truck driver Carl Bumphus.
"We're going to make sure that this program does not become a barrier for good people, who are working, to be disqualified. Our interest is to get as many people as quickly on board," said Hawley.
That's because any kind of slowdown at our ports equals a slower economy.
The new TWIC I.D. system is behind schedule, but applications and background checks for Baltimore's ports are tentatively set to begin at the end of November.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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