The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (or TWIC) program is a Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Coast Guard initiative in the United States. The TWIC program provides a tamper-resistant biometric credential to maritime workers requiring unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities, outer continental shelf facilities, certain manufacturing facilities, and vessels regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, or MTSA, and all U.S. Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners. As of May 2014, there were 2,999,058 people enrolled in the program. Those seeking unescorted access to secure areas aboard affected vessels, and all Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners, must obtain a TWIC. The new measures were fully implemented on April 15, 2009. To obtain a TWIC, an individual must provide biographic and biometric information such as fingerprints, sit for a digital photograph and successfully pass a security threat assessment conducted by TSA.
The issued card contains a computer chip, known as an Integrated Circuit Chip (ICC), which stores the holder's information and biometric data. The chip can be read by inserting it into a reader or holding it near a "contactless" reader. There is also a magnetic strip (similar to a credit card) and a linear barcode on the back as alternative reading methods.
Maritime sector
While TWIC may be implemented across other transportation modes in the future, the TWIC Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2007, sets forth regulatory requirements to implement this program in the maritime mode first.
The program's goals are:
Positively identify authorized individuals who require unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system; Determine the eligibility of an individual to be authorized unescorted access to secure areas of the maritime transportation system; Enhance security by ensuring that unauthorized individuals are denied unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system; and, Identify individuals who fail to maintain their eligibility qualifications after being permitted unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system and revoke the individual's permissions.
Workers required to obtain a TWIC include credentialed merchant mariners, port facility employees, longshoremen, truck drivers, and others requiring unescorted access to secure areas of security-regulated maritime facilities and vessels.
Other transportation sectors
In addition to the maritime sector, the TWIC may be required in the future for other security-sensitive transportation sectors, such as airports, railroads, chemical plants, and refineries. One chemical manufacturing industry representative says it's only a matter of time before the entire manufacturing industry requires workers to have TWIC cards.
Security threat assessment
Each TWIC applicant undergoes a security threat assessment. The assessment considers convictions, arrest warrants, and indictments for certain offenses and other background information. In the case of arrests that do not indicate the disposition, the applicant will be notified by TSA, and the applicant must provide TSA with written proof that the arrest did not result in conviction for the offense.
Permanent disqualifying criminal offenses
An applicant is permanently disqualified if convicted of the following felonies: Espionage, sedition, treason, terrorism, a crime involving a transportation security incident, improper transportation of hazardous material, unlawful acts involving explosives, murder, bomb threats, serious racketeering offenses, or attempts/conspiracy to commit these acts.
Interim disqualifiying criminal offenses
An applicant is disqualified for a period of time for other convictions, if the applicant was convicted in the past seven years and/or released from incarceration resulting from conviction within the past five years, for: Unlawful acts involving firearms, extortion, fraud (does not include welfare fraud and passing bad checks), bribery, smuggling, immigration violations, drug distribution/importation, arson, kidnapping, rape, assault with intent to kill, robbery, fraudulent entry into a seaport, and lesser racketeering offenses, or attempts/conspiracy to commit these acts.