Indian Police To Install AI Cameras To Prevent Crime Of Rape

Various AI-based tech has been tested for many of India’s national projects. In order to protect women, the Police department of Lucknow has decided to deploy several AI-based security cameras with facial expression detecting ability. The idea í to protect women in distress or those being harassed in some of the hotspots around the city.

These AI-powered security cameras can detect the subjects’ facial expressions, thus informing the nearest police station if it thinks that the person is in trouble or is being harassed. The project belongs to the “Mission Shakti” program of Uttar Pradesh, launched in October 2020.

Police Commissioner Dhruv Kumar Thakur of Lucknow’s Police department said to the media that almost 200 hotspots had been identified in the city based on the complaints of female citizens. So, they will first deploy five AI-cameras to target these locations. Whenever they detect such cases, these cameras will alert the nearest police station even before the victim dials the emergency service.

The program’s primary aim is to bring down the number of women harassment cases in the city. However, some technology experts think that installing these AI-powered security cameras would affect the privacy of women instead of protecting them.

They think that this initiative can bring positive results. But it is likely that it can be misused by the police department. Anushka Jain, NGO Internet Freedom Foundation’s Associate Counsel said that this project could result in over-policing, thus increasing the rate of police-harassment.

There isn’t any information regarding whether only some specific officers could access the camera feed or all the officers of the department. And we don’t know whether there is any third-party organization joining in this project. For now, we can only wait to see if this initiative will actually help women or give the police in the city more power.

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