Chennai police to expand the use of FACETAGR, a facial recognition technology to curb inter-state robbers

While facial recognition technology has been creating ripples in the tech industry in smartphones or through  surveillance, the Chennai police have decided to expand the use of its FACETAGR app to other Southern states as well. This step will help them to curb the movement of inter-state robbers. [caption id=“attachment_4372781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to The Hindu report, Puducherry’s Crime Record Bureau has provided the criminal data. Other states which are yet to provide the details include Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka. Currently, they have data on 67,000 criminals. This app would help the police departments in finding the details of a person who belongs to a different State. This facial recognition technology is supposed to help the police in scanning the suspects. Once scanned it generates details about the person including the cases that have been registered against him/her and the police station the person belongs to. After the scanning is complete, further actions are taken to deal with the criminals. The FACETAGR tech was first adopted in October 2017 by the T Nagar police station in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Then it had data of 12,000 criminals. As of now, the sharing of criminal data has only taken place between Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. Under this program, 10 out of 12 police districts are making use of this technology. The access to this technology has been given to all the beat policemen. In Tamil Nadu’s Washermanpet district, this technology is being used to catch hold of criminals.