Bhubaneswar police, BSCL to learn Hyderabad’s CCTV camera surveillance system
BHUBANESWAR: The commissionerate police are planning to upgrade the city’s CCTV camera system by introducing video analytics and facial recognition technology.
A joint team of commissionerate police and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) is scheduled to visit Hyderabad for exposure to high-end CCTV camera system.
Commissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi, who is a member of BSCL, proposed to improve Bhubaneswar’s surveillance system at a recent board meeting. Sarangi said the adoption of the latest technologies in the CCTV camera surveillance system was needed to prevent crime and solve cases. “Since Hyderabad has a modern CCTV camera surveillance system, our officers and BSCL representatives will soon visit the city,” Sarangi told TOI.
Sarangi said a CCTV camera with artificial intelligence (AI), video analytics and facial recognition systems would help police track crime better. “If we have video analytics and face recognition software, we do not need to check all CCTV footage to trace a suspect or accused. The technology will help us detect the suspect or accused and their vehicles on the specific cameras that captured their images,” Sarangi said.
Police sources said they needed at least 5,000 cameras to cover the city. Currently, commissionerate police have 130 CCTV cameras in different locations. Besides, BSCL has 600-odd cameras. Police and BSCL have separate control rooms to monitor the footage.
“The BSCL has decided to link its cameras with police for better crime prevention and traffic regulation,” a senior BSCL official said.
Notably, a number of CCTV cameras in the city were damaged following Cyclone Fani in May 2019. Besides, some of the cameras of the commissionerate police were of poor quality.
In September last year, the commissioner of police Sarangi wrote to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to extend assistance for installation of the CCTV cameras here. Besides, Sarangi urged local residents, traders, commercial establishments, educational institutions, hospitals, clinics and bazaar committees among others to install CCTV cameras to keep a watch on criminals. “A number of people have complied and installed CCTV cameras. We managed to solve two recent bank robberies and another ATM loot case with the help of some private CCTV cameras,” another police officer said.