First case in Delhi solved with face recognition technology

NEW DELHI: In a first, Delhi Police used the facial recognition system to track down and arrest three criminals within hours of their dodging a police team near Pitampura on Sunday.
Cops saw the three riding a bike without masks or helmets and signalled them to stop. They tried to pose as patients returning from hospital. But when the cops asked for their identity cards, one of them whipped out a pistol and pointed it towards the cops, forcing them to step back.The three sped away towards the Outer Ring Road after ramming a police bike and smashing the side-view mirror of another police vehicle. They threatened to shoot the cops who were chasing them.
Police scanned 150 CCTV cameras and sent the feed to the crime records officer to identify the criminals using the facial recognition system. One of the bikers turned out to be Amit, a notorious snatcher, who was arrested earlier in cases of robbery.
Accused took to crime after losing jobs
DCP (North West) Vijayanta Arya said a team of police from the Maurya Enclave police station tracked down Amit along with his two associates, Sunil and Tarun. “We have recovered two pistols and three mobile phones the men had snatched earlier,” DCP Arya said.
All the accused used to work as labourers and took to crime after losing their jobs. Tarun was a student of a DU college and dropped out of studies midway.
The facial recognition software was procured by Delhi Police last year under the smart-city initiative. The software can receive feed from CCTV cameras installed through a control room and then match the videos captured in them with the police records. It then raises an alert if the faces match with those with the criminal records. The software also has an image enhancing feature, which can identify a face even from a blurred image.