Chennai police rely on Artificial intelligence, extensive camera network to combat crime

With increasing incidence in crime in metros across India, police have started using science and high-tech gadgets to combat such incidents and nab wrong-doers. An example of this is the Integrated Command & Control Centre which was recently started by the Greater Chennai Police which will receive direct feed from hundreds of CCTV cameras across the city, providing real-time policing.

The initiative which is part of Nirbhaya Safe City Projects aims to make residents of Chennai safe. It was launched by Shankar Jiwal, Commissioner, GCP at the Commissioner Office premises in Vepery located north of the State Capital under Chennai Safe City Project.

To cover the city, a total of 5,250 CCTV cameras are being installed at 1,750 key locations identified by GCP. The live feed from these cameras will be monitored at ICCC. Under the first phase, a total of 4,008 CCTV cameras which have been put up at 1,336 locations will be kept track of by staff at ICCC.

Apart from this Centre, the feed can be seen at the office of Commissioner round the clock. To keep other top brass of the police in the loop, the six offices of Joint Commissioners of Police and 12 of Deputy Commissioners of Police will also receive direct feed for monitoring and action.

The feeds from the vast camera network are expected to check and curtail crime incidents in GCP while also helping the authorities to keep a close watch on traffic jams on city’s busy roads.

Going beyond filming, the system which has the state-of-the-art technology and Artificial Intelligence based software offers several analytics features. The system also has the facility of alerting the authorities for immediate action in emergency cases.

To enable cops to take prompt action in cases involving safety of women, the system is equipped with AI software which will analyse camera feeds and alert the police to take appropriate action. “SOS gestures by women caught on the camera too will make the AI software issue alerts,” according to Jiwal.

The system also provides video analytics of criminal incidents involving snatching of mobiles, handbag, and chain, eve teasing, violence against people, vandalism, kidnapping, theft of vehicles and also tampering with the cameras.

The feeds will be stored in the Data Centre and also copied in the Data recovery centre so that it can be accessed as when required as evidence and for solving crime.