Good News for TWIC Holders

Posted on August 25, 2010 by John C. W. Bennett

Have you ever gone to the airport hoping that your Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC), which attests that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has made a “Determination of No Security Threat” in your case, will let you avoid more intensive secondary screening that TSA usually visits on people traveling on one-way tickets, only to have the TSA Transportation Security Officer (TSO) at the check point to the security area not recognize your TWIC?  Apparently it has happened often enough, but that may be about to change.

TSA now has a Talk to TSA initiative that solicits “your questions, suggestions, and feedback on your security experience.”  In the ordinary case, these inputs will be routed to the person in charge of “TSA customer service” at the airport commented.  However, John Pistole, the new TSA Administrator, has also undertaken to use the TSA Blog to respond to “some of the more commonly asked questions and themes.”  One such theme rapidly came to light: “There seems to be a trend of TSO’s not recognizing TWIC cards at our checkpoints.”  Accordingly, in a recent TSA Blog, Mr. Pistole promised that TSOs will get “the necessary refresher training to recognize TWIC cards.”  You still may not avoid the secondary screening (not that terrorists couldn’t save money by buying a round trip excursion fare and just not use the return ticket), but at least they’ll honor your TWIC.

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3 Responses to Good News for TWIC Holders

  1. Marsec Guru says:
    August 25, 2010 at 4:08 PM

    I’ve never had my TWIC refused by a TSO. About a year ago at LaGuardia, however, the TSO at the checkpoint told me they were no longer issuing TWICs, but she’d let me through anyway.

    I tried to use one at Immigration at the St. Thomas airport on the way back from to Florida from a job in the USVI. No go. I had to produce my pre-REAL ID Florida driver’s license, which was accepted without a hitch. A credential from a sister agency in DHS that means the carrier has been vetted and isn’t a risk to transportation security is not acceptable, but license that had been issued to, at least, a majority of the 9/11 hijackers works just fine for determining who is allowed top head to the Mainland. Go figure.

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