Future Airline Reservations Could Be Accessed by Police
Law enforcement authorities could be able to access air travelers' booking information in a few years in what is being pitched as a plan to bolster law enforcement.
Airlines currently retain booking information for business purposes and the police currently have no access to the information, reported uudised.err.ee. But the Ministry of the Interior is preparing a draft which allows the police to access this information to prevent serious crimes and acts of terrorism.
The idea was proposed during the same time last year by the European Committee. The negotiations over internal and justice questions are ongoing in the European Parliament, but member states can already apply funding to finance improvements in domestic security. Once the directive is passed, all member states are required to comply and no EU funds are available from there on.
For this reason, the interior ministry wants to set up the system as soon as possible. This will make for the most efficient solution for all parties and finance the new system without using funds from the state budget, it says. Currently, the Tallinn Airport security checks only if the person has a boarding pass to proceed to the terminal. The Border Guard checks the passports when the passenger is entering or exiting the Schengen area.
The future booking information should be interchangeable between member states. The law won't come into force before 2015.
In the first ten months of 2012, 17 persons wanted for crimes were apprehended at airport border control. There are close to 1,900 wanted persons in Estonia.