Chattanooga Port Workers Begin Enrollment for Federal Port Security Credential
April 23, 2008
TSA Public Affairs:
404-460-2282
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Starting today, port and longshore workers, truckers and others at the Port of Chattanooga begin enrolling in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program's goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat.
"The start of enrollment is one more step in our effort to prevent persons who are a threat from gaining access to secure areas of port facilities," said Maurine Fanguy, TWIC program director for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). "We appreciate the support of our partners at Port of Chattanooga for helping to make one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems a reality."
More than 1 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas are expected to apply for TWIC by the end of 2008. More than 90 ports have begun enrollment in the nationwide program. Ultimately, fixed enrollment centers will be in place at 147 ports along with mobile enrollment centers at dozens of other locations as needed.
The Port of Chattanooga TWIC enrollment center is located at 5959 Shallowford Rd., Suite 427, Chattanooga, TN 37421. Hours of operation are Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Workers at the Port of Chattanooga are able to pre-enroll for TWIC online at www.tsa.gov/twic or the Coast Guard's Homeport site, http://homeport.uscg.mil. Pre-enrolling speeds up the process by allowing workers to provide biographic information and schedule a time to complete the application process in person. This eliminates waiting at enrollment centers and reduces the time it takes to enroll each individual.
For more information about TSA, please visit our Web site at www.tsa.gov.
