Assalamu Alaikum - Karachi police make arrest using facial recognition tech
Assalamu Alaikum. Police in Karachi’s Sindh province say they used facial recognition cameras for the first time to arrest a man wanted in several violent crimes.
Karachi, a bustling city of almost 20 million and Pakistan’s commercial hub, has long struggled with street crime, gang violence linked to drug turf fights, kidnappings for ransom and politically or sectarian-motivated killings.
Authorities said the suspect, Abdul Azeem, was identified and caught after a facial recognition camera, part of the growing Safe City project, picked him up on the network of surveillance cameras. The project aims to help law enforcement by providing real-time monitoring and automated data analysis.
“As far as I know, this is the first time police have been able to detain a criminal with the help of cameras when there was no prior information about him,” Asad Raza, a deputy inspector general in Karachi’s South district, said. “Technology helped confirm his identity and the cameras matched him to the person police were looking for. Officers were sent right away and he was arrested.”
Since the major security operation launched in 2013 to curb violence - when paramilitary Rangers and police worked together - overall safety has improved, but street crime and organized gangs still cause problems.
To modernize policing, officials have added over 1,000 cameras across the city in Phase 1 of the Safe City plan; more than 900 are in the South zone where this arrest took place. The system uses regular CCTV, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and facial recognition cameras placed in public areas like shopping centers, parks and registration offices.
Azeem was riding a motorcycle when one of 42 facial recognition cameras in the South Zone flagged him. The alert went to the command-and-control center, which sent nearby officers to stop and confirm the suspect, DIG Raza said.
He was wanted in several cases, including a police encounter, illegal weapons possession and robbery.
The official stressed that policing and technology are now closely linked and that modern cities increasingly depend on tech to support law enforcement work.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/