Software to track criminals during ‘Karthigai Deepam’

With 18,000 photos, ‘Face tagger’ can identify a criminal and alert the police

The photographs of 18,000 active criminals will be uploaded to a single server, and about 60 CCTV cameras will be linked to the system

The Tiruvannamalai police are gearing up to keep an eye on the movement of criminals during the ‘Karthigai Deepam’ festival. The department is all set to introduce a software that will help in tracking criminals by tagging their faces. With the festival to be celebrated on December 2, work to put in place security measures is in full swing. Over 9,000 police personnel and 200 CCTV cameras will keep a watch during the festival.

“As a part of this, we are introducing a new software – face tagger – to track the face of criminals. As per police records, we have the photographs of 18,000 active criminals from Tamil Nadu and neighbouring States. These photographs will be uploaded to a single server, and about 60 CCTV cameras will be linked to the system,” M. Rangarajan, Additional Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai said. He said the idea was conceived by C. Sridhar, Inspector General of Police, north zone and R. Ponni, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai.

The police department has tied up with a Chennai-based software company for the initiative. “If any of the cameras linked to the system captures the image of a criminal, the software will match the image and send an alert to the control room. This way, we can immediately alert the police in that respective area to track the criminal,” he explained.

Already, there are 66 CCTV cameras across Tiruvannamalai town, and another 70 inside the Sri Arunachaleswarar temple. Nearly 70 more will cover the Girivalam path, he said, adding, installation of the CCTV cameras have been completed, and they were yet to be operationalised.

“We will be linking 60 cameras to the server. We are selecting cameras that cover places such as bus stands where pick pockets can wander, and crowded places where chain snatchers will mingle with the crowd,” Mr. Rangarajan said.

In fact, the software will read and recognise any posture of the criminal be it straight posture, side face or even if only one-fourth portion of the face was visible, he added. “We have already uploaded the photographs of the criminals, and will be putting the software on trial on Sunday,” he said.

In fact, there are plans to provide the software for the Android-based smartphones of the crime team, he said, adding, “If the team members are suspicious of a person, they can click a photograph of the person on their mobile phones and run through the software to see if it matches the criminal record.”