News

Safeguarding backpackers

Published 21 April 2011

It's every parent's nightmare – their son or daughter is off travelling and suddenly the emails and phone calls stop. Have they been injured, robbed, or worse?

Students at the University of Brighton's Brighton Business School have helped develop the Travellers' electronic Safety System (TeSS) that helps trace missing people and could save lives.

It works by travellers sending SMS text messages to the TeSS system and updating their movements and plans including flights, bus trips, directions taken, hotels/hostels stayed at, and cities and places visited and new friends made.

The advantage is that should contact with them be lost then the authorities can use TeSS to short-cut what is often a torturous and lengthy process of tracing their last-known whereabouts.

Speed at times like this is critical and by quickening the process, the chances of tracing the traveller is greatly improved and, in cases where the traveller has been injured or kidnapped, the chances of their survival are greatly improved.

Instead of police following cold trails and relying on scant information from families and witnesses, they can tap into TeSS and find the latest information supplied by the travellers themselves.

More than 250,000 backpackers and gap year students set off from the UK every year, many travelling to remote and distant places. A small number go missing and, thankfully, the vast majority are traced and found to be safe and well, and for worried families waiting anxiously for news, the shorter the time gap before receiving the good news, the better.

But this new system is not just for gap year students. Figures show that there are almost as many older people who take a year out from work and embark on adventurous travels. This unique system has been designed to work with any age group, wherever they are travelling in the world.

TeSS is set to be launched this spring and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which manages technology and support services to help frontline policing and hosts the National Missing Persons Bureau, has already agreed to provide a central point of access to the system.

Charlie Hedges, NPIA Missing Persons Bureau liaison and support officer, said: "The bureau is pleased to provide a point of access as, sadly, things do sometimes go wrong when people are travelling.

"On these rare occasions, it is essential that the most up-to-date information is available about their whereabouts. The bureau also has extensive international contacts and links to Interpol which are of benefit in such investigations. It must be remembered that the bureau and Interpol cannot take missing persons reports – these must be directed to a local police force."

The idea for TeSS began four years ago when Dr Roger Saunders, senior lecturer at the university's Brighton Business School, was approached by the Home Office to conduct research on kidnaps for the then National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), which is now the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Part of the research focused on backpackers who go missing and organisations contacted during the study included the Lucie Blackman Trust, formed after the former flight attendant was found dead in a Japanese village in 2000, following a seven-month search.

Dr Saunders joined forces with Brighton friends Nick Johnston, a retired police officer who spent many years with NCIS and Interpol and was a specialist on missing people and child abductions, and Simon Stock, a businessman and chartered accountant. They are the three directors of TessOnLine, the company behind the TeSS system.

Left to right: Simon Stock, Nick Johnston and Dr Roger Saunders

Mr Johnston said: "Parents often say to their children who are travelling abroad to make contact with them regularly. That works for a few weeks but they soon forget to call or email and worried families will report their loved ones missing.

"When police officers start investigating they find relatives can provide only limited and often out-dated information. Officers will work with the NPIA Missing Persons Bureau, overseas police services through Interpol and at times through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office but often the trail has gone cold."

Dr Saunders said: "It was evident that there was a need to look at this issue in more detail and as a result of all this, TessOnLine developed software that allows backpackers or other travellers to send text messages to an electronic 'vault' that stores this information in an encrypted format in the event that it might be needed."

The updates can be sent from anywhere in the world as long as the sender has access to a mobile phone network or a computer.

Simon Stock said: "The whole idea behind TeSS is to reduce the time between someone being reported missing and identifying their last whereabouts. It makes it quicker and easier to establish someone is safe and well, relieving stress and trauma for anxious families and friends back at home."

Travellers would pay a £20 a year registration fee to gain access to TeSS wherever they are in the world. The information they send is encrypted and confidential and gives the traveller the freedom to put private and confidential information in the vault that they wouldn't necessarily divulge openly to relatives. Only in the event they need tracing will the vault be accessed, and then only by the NPIA Missing Persons' Bureau.

Students at the University of Brighton took part in testing the system and completed a questionnaire and their comments about TeSS helped in the development of the software which goes live in a few weeks' time.

Dr Saunders said: "Students have been very positive about the idea and we were surprised at how many wanted to sign up immediately and how much they would be prepared to pay.

"There is now a cheap, secure and effective way for regular updates to be sent and stored in the event of the unexpected happening. It also brings peace of mind to those loved ones left behind knowing that in the event of any loss of contact the authorities should now be able to react much quicker."

One student, Chandni Dudhaiya, said: "It's definitely something I would use if I went travelling abroad." Another student, Daniel Martin, said: "It would give my mum and dad peace of mind if they knew I was subscribed to the system and sending back regular updates."

Martin Clayton, a vice-president of the Brighton Student Union, said: "TeSS could prove an invaluable addition to an individual’s travel plans. The peace of mind for both the traveller and loved ones back home is a priceless commodity and, hopefully, this new innovation will allow speedier access to information that may prove vital in finding a missing person. Anything that contributes to a student’s safety abroad is always welcomed and, for such a low price, it is difficult to find fault."

Dr Saunders said: "It's a cheap, easy-to-use system that can save a lot of public expenditure in terms of searching, can save people from worry and, in some instances, save lives."

For more information contact Nick Johnston nick@tessonline.co.uk or Dr Roger Saunders drsaunders@ntlworld.com or visit the TeSS website www.tessonline.co.uk.