How a pioneering Facial Recognition System and a mobile app are improving policing

Indian Express
23 October, 2019

On October 4, Hyderabad Police was able to crack the murder case of an Isro (Indian Space Research Organisation) employee who was found dead in his flat on October 1. A facial recognition software confirmed that a man seen in a CCTV footage was the one wanted by the police.

Earlier, on May 1, senior Telangana Police officers received a message from Bengaluru Police about a Telugu-speaking girl who was found in Mysuru and appeared to have lost her way. Officials at the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate, which has a large jurisdiction on the outskirts of Hyderabad, ran the photo through the Facial Recognition System (FRS). Within a few minutes, the system correctly tracked the girl and she was reunited with her family the very next day.

On February 9, a 14-year-old mentally-challenged boy who went missing from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh last June was traced by Telangana Police. The boy’s photo had popped up on “Darpan” — another facial recognition app the Telangana Police is developing to deal with missing children cases.

These are just some of the cases that have been solved by the use of a pioneering Facial Recognition System (FRS) application introduced by Telangana Police since August 2018. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t know an offender’s name, we will certainly get him by his face,’’ says Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat.

Bhagwat and his team of officers are the force behind FRS. In the last 8 to 10 months, Rachakonda Police has solved over two dozen cases using the FRS, including murder mysteries, missing children, identifying and arresting inter-state dacoits, and serial traffic offenders. Taking a proactive role, the Rachakonda Police used the FRS to access online databases of police records in many states across the country, and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) of National Crime Records Bureau under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, to solve complex cases.

The FRS was launched by Telangana Police DGP M Mahender Reddy but Rachakonda Police has put it to maximum use.

The FRS gives out a list of possible offenders, in case of a crime, by comparing the suspect’s face with lakhs of photographs stored online, and a list of persons with matching facial features in cases of missing persons.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more