Tampa Bay ports to implement new security measure Tuesday

Tampa Bay's major ports will have an extra layer of security starting Tuesday, when all longshoremen, dock workers, and port employees will be required to carry federal identification cards.

Left: The new federal identification cards required of all longshoremen, dockworkers and port employees. [Transportation Security Administration]

The Transportation Worker Identification Credentials card will be used at ports of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Manatee and elsewhere. The cards will feature  personal information such as height and weight and a fingerprint for dock scanners, said Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close, who commands most of Florida's west coast.

Half of the nation's ports already require the cards, he said, and ports in New Orleans, St. Louis and Miami also will begin observing the security program Tuesday.

To receive a card, workers will have to submit to federal background checks, Close said. Employees with records of violent or terrorist-related crimes, or who have incidents of smuggling, racketeering or dealing with illegal explosives in their past, will be disqualified from the mandatory program.

Port workers must already carry similar state ID's. This card will supplement that and might override it in the future, said Tampa Port Director Richard Wainio.

Wainio said the cards will be an incremental step toward stricter security at the state's largest port, which already spends $6-million a year on guards, divers, camera operators and other security measures. The program has incurred no costs yet, he said, adding that fingerprint scanners to be implemented later will be funded by the federal government.

The cards will cost workers, however. They will have to pay $132.50 every five years for the cards. More than 9,000 of the cards have been issued locally, and the Coast Guard predicts 13,000 cards will be in use at the Tampa port over the next few months.

"This is not heavy-handed by any means," Close said. "We've been working on this for a year now. Everybody knows this has been coming. ... They're all ready for it."

Drew Harwell, Times staff writer

 

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