Police in Uttarakhand state, India, will use a CCTV-based facial recognition system to identify security threats during the Ardh Kumbh religious festival. The announcement came during a weekend meeting for interstate coordination on security issues related to the festival.
Facial recognition software will be applied to security feeds from CCTV cameras, scanning for matches with images in a security intelligence database. If a match is found, an automatic alert will be triggered to bring the issue to the attention of the authorities.
It’s the first such system to be implemented in Uttarakhand, but it reflects what appears to be a growing trend in the country: A similar system was implemented in Hyderabad last spring, and Surat police adopted such a solution that summer, with Tirupati authorities announcing they would follow suit soon after. And these solutions are themselves part of a growing interest on India’s part in biometric security solutions more broadly.
Speaking to The Times of India, an Uttarakhand official affirmed that security authorities “are ready and well trained to handle the application,” which should help police to ensure that this religious festival proceeds peacefully for all involved.
Source: The Times of India
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January 13, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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