Hyderabad: The city police are using ‘facial recognition software’ to track down criminals on the city’s roads. The software contains data of about one lakh criminals from across the country.
The high definition cameras installed across the city are connected to the Facial Recognition Analytics unit at the Commissioner’s office at Basheerbagh.
“Whenever a suspect passes by the cameras, it captures an image and a beep sounds at the unit alerting officials. After a brief analysis we alert the local police to check the person,” informed IT Cell incharge, K. Sreenath Reddy. Of course, a person whose facial features are similar to a criminal’s in the data base may also get hauled in.
Mr Reddy says that the local police are alerted only when the resemblance is more than 70 per cent.
Sometimes, criminals grow a beard and moustache, or shave off the ones they have “but the software is capable of identifying them in most cases, though there might be some percentage variation in similarity,” Mr Reddy said.
Nine high definition cameras have been installed across the city and they can cover long distances and be tilted in any direction. They stream the live feed round the clock. The cameras also automatically detect number plates of vehicles.
“We upload the number plate of vehicles used by criminals for various offences,” Mr Reddy said.
