CISF seeks govt nod to set up facial recognition cameras at four airports

THe CISF has sought-after(a) the unification place ministry’s permission to go under up cameras with a nervus facialis recognition system in at least four airports — starting with Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata — which will help identify fugitives and suspects using the government’s database.At the foundation-laying ceremony of 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 Centre (ICCC) for vital installations and airports. As part of data fusion 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, 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 aware of the matter said that cameras with software capable of matching the faces of suspects(with those in government’s database) will first be installed at the four mentioned airports. The data captured by the cameras will then connect to the CISF’s Integrated Command and Control Centre, where it will be matched with data of national security agencies such as NATGRID.“ The CISF also proposed installing the system at Hyderabad and Bengaluru because of 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 select points within the airports and also connect them with NATGRID and other security platforms. Not all cameras will require this system. It will be placed at locations such as entry or exit points where suspects must pass when entering the airport. It will help monitor suspects who use airports for transit,” one officer aware of the discussion said.The NCRB already uses the automatic face recognition system on cameras to identify wanted suspects and missing people. It was used during the Delhi riots as part of a probe to identify suspects in the crowd who were seen at more than one location during the violence.“The cameras are yet to be installed. The agencies already have photographs of wanted suspects and fugitives. Cameras with facial recognition software can help detect such people who use the airports across the country. There will be real time monitoring and surveillance of the system. There is an extensive database of wanted suspects with government agencies,” an official aware of the matter said.