No one solution to scanning puzzle
Politicians need to consider a number of scanning approaches to meet the challenge
Flexibility will be vital in responding to whatever scanning approach is decided upon by regulators, says Andrew Goldsmith of Rapiscan.
“If there is a move towards a targeted approach or one where you need more information about the contents of a container in advance, then do selective scanning; we would say that our systems are extremely well suited for that. We have always developed our systems to give maximum flexibility; they can be configured as mobile or drive-through portal systems, or for scanning for radioactive/nuclear materials or detecting contraband.”
Rapiscan has been busy globally this year, responding to demand for its systems from border security and customs agencies. As well as enquiries related to scanning for smuggled items, customs agencies are, given the economic climate, making sure they collect all the revenue and duty they are entitled to, "so there is definitely interest in solutions that help them do that", says Mr Goldsmith. “We think we can offer customs agencies a very good return on investment in that respect and we are seeing a lot of demand in Europe, Asia and the US for these systems.”
Rapiscan has been working with Dutch customs on a system for scanning rail containers at Rotterdam, and there is significant interest in this, he adds. “A considerable number of ports are fed by rail and this is a very interesting application.”
Rapiscan systems are designed to combine, network and integrate with information collected through other means, he says. “So people managing the port can compare an image with the manifest information collected; they can be networking and sending the image data to the port of destination, well in advance of the vessel’s arrival, so there can be any necessary investigation before it arrives. There are a lot of different pieces in the supply chain security puzzle. Scanning isn’t the only part. Our systems work with the rest of the security system.”
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