Customs searches for IT to combat smuggling

Her Majesty's Customs and Excise (HMCE) is looking for new software technology to scan airline passenger lists and help combat drug smuggling.

The application would apply risk profiles to passenger name and check-in information provided by airlines, and highlight travellers thought to pose a threat to Customs' border controls.

Potential targets include drug and tobacco smugglers, and people involved in the traffic of endangered species.

The plan is only in its initial stages but HMCE wants to establish what commercial applications are available to avoid unnecessarily building a bespoke system.

List-filtering tools will help keep law-enforcers ahead of increasingly technology-literate criminals, says HMCE.

'Criminals are becoming ever more sophisticated so we have to be one step ahead,' said a spokesman.

'HMCE is a 21st Century department fighting 21st Century crime, and we have to use the latest technology to do that. The more technology we use, and the better it is, the less we have to bother the everyday innocent traveller,' he said.

The software must be sufficiently intuitive for use by non-specialist staff and be capable of roll out across the whole UK Customs network, says HMCE.

It will also have to deal with the fact that data provided by airlines comes from a variety of systems rather than through a single common interface.

Earlier this month, Computing revealed that military technology specialist Qinetiq has created a system, known as Matchmaker, designed to scan airline passenger lists to alert the authorities to potential terrorists (Computing, 15 January).