The CISF has sought permission from the Union Home Ministry to set up cameras equipped with facial recognition system at at least four airports – starting from Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata – which will help in identifying fugitives and suspects using the government’s database.
At the foundation laying ceremony for the new CISF headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, Director General Praveer Ranjan said in his address: “There will be an Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) for critical facilities and airports. As part of data consolidation in this centre, the government is considering our proposal to have a facial recognition system at four airports: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.”
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, laid the foundation stone for the new headquarters.
While the CISF chief did not specify details about the proposed facial recognition system, people familiar with the matter said that cameras equipped with software capable of matching suspects’ faces (with those in the government’s database) would first be installed at the four aforementioned airports. The data captured by the cameras will then be communicated to CISF’s Integrated Command and Control Centre, where it will be matched with data from national security agencies such as NATGRID.
“CISF has also proposed to install the system in Hyderabad and Bengaluru due to the high volume of passenger traffic. The matter is still under consideration. It is too early but meetings have been held to install such cameras at selected points inside the airports and also link them to NATGRID and other security platforms. Not all cameras will require this system. It will be placed at locations like entry or exit points where suspects have to pass when entering the airport. This will help in monitoring the suspects who use the airports for transit,” said an officer aware of the matter. Discussion said.
The NCRB already uses the automatic facial recognition system found in cameras to identify wanted suspects and missing persons. It was used during the Delhi riots as part of an investigation to identify suspects in the crowd who were seen in more than one place during the violence.
“The cameras have not been installed yet. Agencies already have photographs of wanted suspects and fugitives. Cameras with facial recognition software can help detect such people using airports across the country. There will be real-time surveillance and monitoring of the system,” an official familiar with the matter said. “There is an extensive database of suspects wanted by government agencies.”
