WASHINGTON: India is trying to build the world's largest facial recognition system to immediately detect a suspect, says an official announcement published in international media.
The proposed database, the Automated Facial Recognition System, aims to "modernize … the collection of information, criminal identification, verification and dissemination" throughout the country.
India has asked IT companies around the world to submit their proposals to the National Crime Record Bureau in New Delhi.
India hopes that the project will allow law enforcement agencies in its 29 states and seven union territories to access a single centralized database.
A detailed 172-page document published by the office says the system would compare images of the growing network of CCTV cameras in India with a database of photographs of criminals, passport photos and images collected by various government agencies.
The document says that the new facial recognition platform "can play a vital role in improving results" when it comes to identifying criminals, missing persons and bodies. It will also help police forces "detect crime patterns" and help in crime prevention, he adds.
According to a survey conducted in 2018, the crime rate in India is high, particularly in large urban centers.
As of 2016, Delhi had the highest recognizable crime rate of 974.9 (per 100,000 people) and Uttar Pradesh had the highest incidence of crime based on the percentage of participation.
In 2016, there were 709.1 crimes per 100,000 people in 19 major cities, compared to the national average of 379.3.
Posted on Dawn, October 20, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1511879/india-building-worlds-biggest-face-recognition-system