ITS and the battle against terrorism

Following the murderous events in Paris, investigators will be looking at how the terrorists’ plans could have been detected and foiled and why that did not happen in this case. Full details are not yet known but from the press reports it appears that there were several missed opportunities which centre on travel and transport: A car stopped by the German police was found to contain weapons and had a Paris address programed into its satellite navigation; the ‘mastermind’ has travelled undetected from Syria,
November 30, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Following the murderous events in Paris, investigators will be looking at how the terrorists’ plans could have been detected and foiled and why that did not happen in this case. Full details are not yet known but from the press reports it appears that there were several missed opportunities which centre on travel and transport: A car stopped by the German police was found to contain weapons and had a Paris address programed into its satellite navigation; the ‘mastermind’ has travelled undetected from Syria, another two participants had travelled from Belgium in hired cars. After the atrocities took place another suspect is reported to have been stopped on their way to the Belgian border and then released.

If those initial reports turn out to be correct, then there are clearly internal communications issues for the security services to address but beyond that they will be looking at how such networks can be detected and their plots foiled. While the detection will probably centre on intercepting communications, preventing the perpetrators from arranging, equipping and carrying out their murderous deeds is likely to involve disrupting their travel plan. The reality is that the systems employed by the transportation sector are better equipped to detecting – or being modified to detect – the movement of marked individuals and suspect vehicles than any others currently deployed.

So in addition to tighter border controls, the response to Paris could involve road authorities, car hire and car share companies and transit operators having to monitor traffic and travellers for marked individuals. Furthermore, if one or more of these individuals is detected, there is likely to be a duty to inform the relevant authority.

While it probably won’t be long before we know the outcomes of these security reviews it seems clear that the transportation sector will be involved in countering future plots. Therefore it would be preferable for transportation authorities to participate in these conversations from the outset, rather than waiting for regulations to be imposed from on high.

Related Content

  • Road user charging - replacing the gas tax with a mileage based fee
    January 19, 2012
    Oregon Department of Transportation's James Whitty discusses his state's progress with VMT fee-based charging. Back in 2001, the state of Oregon stole a lead on the rest of the US when it decided to address the need to do something about the gas tax and its decreasing ability to fund highway construction and upkeep. Recognising that a dwindling pot of money could only shrink further as vehicles became more fuelefficient, Oregon's Legislative Assembly passed laws which led to the setting up, by the state's g
    Read More
  • Improving the positional accuracy of GNSS road user charging
    July 23, 2012
    The European GINA project is intended to address and overcome many of the institutional, technical and public acceptance hurdles currently faced by satellite-based road user charging schemes. Dave Tindall and Denis Naberezhnykh, TRL, and Laure Dezes, ERF, write. Pay-as-you-drive Road User Charging (RUC), whereby demand (or congestion) is managed by applying appropriate tariffs in order to encourage drivers to make their journeys at less busy times, on less congested routes or even on different modes, could
    Read More
  • Cohda Wireless: 'New York has the best urban canyons'
    July 21, 2020
    Dr Paul Alexander, chief technical officer of Cohda Wireless, talks to Adam Hill about DSRC versus C-V2X, global connected vehicle take-up, the uses of WiFi – and, of course, seeing round the Big Apple's buildings...
    Read More
  • ANPR integrity is as important as capability
    February 1, 2012
    Increasing the capability of automatic number plate recognition should go hand-in-hand with efforts to ensure number plates' integrity, says the ESVA's Viv Nicholas. Before we apply increasingly sophisticated technology to Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), says the European Secure Vehicle Alliance's (ESVA's) executive director Viv Nicholas, there is a lot we can do to make the task of vehicle recognition simpler by addressing issues relating to the number plate itself.
    Read More

Highlighted Content