Florida aids test of port security
Last modified Fri., March 19, 2004 - 12:23 AM
Originally created Friday, March 19, 2004
Dockworkers, truckers in three states to receive high-tech ID cards in seven-month trial.
By STEPHEN MAJORS and GREGORY RICHARDS
The Times-Union
Florida's ports will take the lead in changing security practices in a national pilot project announced Thursday, further underscoring the importance of these gateways to the state and homeland defense.
Dockworkers and truckers will receive a single, high-tech identification card for entering secure areas at all of Florida's 14 deep-water seaports. The cards will contain biometric information, such as a fingerprint, to verify the identities of individual port workers.
The new Transportation Worker Identification Credential will replace a disjointed system that required every port to issue its own badge. A trucker, for instance, may have carried 14 badges to make deliveries to all the Sunshine State's ports. Now, that trucker will need only one card.
Record auto flow
The Jacksonville Port Authority was the country's largest handler of automobiles in 2002. Figures for 2003 have not yet been compiled.
"Overall, it should be beneficial because it will allow the capture of more data more efficiently about who's using the port," said Robert Peek, Jacksonville Port Authority spokesman.
Implementing the joint federal-state system begins immediately and will continue over the next seven months, according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. It builds upon legislation Florida enacted in July 2001 to stem the flow of illegal drugs. Port security dramatically increased in importance following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Today marks a milestone in Florida's effort to provide modern security to our public seaports," Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said in Tallahassee, flanked by legislators, members of the Florida Cabinet and representatives from the Transportation Security Administration and the Florida Truckers Association.
Workers will continue to be subject to provisions of the Florida law that mandate criminal background checks prior to receiving a card. All workers entering secure port areas more than five times in 90 days are required to carry security cards.
There will likely be a fee assessed on card-carriers. Transportation Security Ad- ministration spokeswoman Lauren Stover said those details are still being worked out.
Florida joins ports in California and Pennsylvania in testing the new system. After the seven-month trial period, any needed adjustments will be made to the system, which will eventually be rolled out nationwide. Beyond ports, the system will extend to workers at other parts of the transportation system, including airports, train stations and pipeline terminals. No timetable was available Thursday from the Transportation Security Admini- stration.
Vincent Cameron, president of the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1408 in Jacksonville, said the new cards were likely a good move, so long as the system was implemented smoothly.
stephen.majorsjacksonville.com, (850) 224-7515, ext. 16
gregory.richardsjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4649
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