ROURKELA: Amid its pursuit for high-tech policing in all spheres of operation, the use of AI-enabled aerial surveillance drones have come handy for Rourkela police, enabling it to carry out patrolling and detection of anti-social activities at parks and other public places with increased ease.
The effectiveness of drone patrolling came to fore on Monday with arrest of 11 anti-social persons consuming alcohol at parks, open spaces near licenced liquor shops at Koelnagar under Jhirpani police limits. On Sunday morning, Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani had taken a bi-cycle ride to Koelnagar when senior citizens of the locality apprised him of how anti-social elements consume alcohol or other narcotic substances in open public spaces.
Wadhwani said the effectiveness of patrolling in Rourkela city has increased manifold with the use of drone each of which can cover a radius of nearly 5 km. These AI-enabled devices are capable of area surveillance, vehicle tracking, detection and prevention of crimes with timely intervention.
The adoption of drone patrolling technology is particularly beneficial amid limited availability of manpower and resources. As of now, Rourkela police have two AI-enabled surveillance drones. The drones get deployed across police stations as per the patrolling need.
Under Operation Suraksha, he said, encrypted database of habitual offenders and hardcore criminals is getting prepared for AI search in near future.
The drones with facial recognition ability can effectively track any criminals whose data is stored in the police system. In fact, last month when a wanted criminal was seeking to escape in a vehicle, the advanced surveillance drone quickly ascertained the escape route leading to his arrest.
Nearly a year back, e-beat patrolling was introduced on pilot basis to cover 100 beats under 12 police stations of Rourkela city to keep watch on above 600 sensitive locations including ATMs, religious places, parks, markets and homes of vulnerable senior citizens. The ‘beat officers’ have been mandated to collect intelligence of their respective locations and report to higher officials if police interventions are needed.
Seeking to modernise with digital transformation, Rourkela police on July 25 signed an MoU with the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela.
The SP said, by the end of 2025, they hope to introduce AI-based predictive policing in which the crime-hit maps would be interlinked with database of habitual offenders. In the event of the crime-hit maps experiencing any change, the AI feature would throw up quick predictive results if habitual or any other offender was involved. A host of other technological initiatives have either been operationalised or underway, he added.
AI in policing
Two AI-enabled surveillance drones
Each can cover 5 km radius
Facial recognition tracks criminals in database
Plans afoot for predictive policing