delhi police: Delhi L-G VK Saxena directs Delhi Police to operationalise ‘Safe City Project’ by August

Lt Governor VK Saxena on Monday issued instructions to the Delhi Police to operationalise the ‘Safe City Project‘, which aims to prevent and curb all forms of crimes against women in public places, by August. According to a statement, Saxena issued instructions to incorporate Artificial Intelligence-based applications into the project to ensure real-time crowd assessment, picking up behavioural traits and discrepancies and immediately notify the command and control centres in the PHQ, the districts and police stations for immediate response in case of any deviations that point towards impending crimes, it said. Installation of 10,582 CCTV cameras in Delhi, setting up of command and control centres with video analytics facilities, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and facial recognition system, among others, at the police and district headquarters and police stations are some components of the project, it stated.

“Saxena reviewed the status and progress of the project being implemented by the Delhi Police and issued instructions for the same to be made fully functional and operational by August.

“The project, being implemented at a cost of Rs 798 crore (and) funded by the Government of India, aims to prevent and curb all forms of crimes against women in public places by providing technology-enabled surveillance system, 24×7 real-time video-based analytics, quick and effective emergency response system and dedicated emergency vehicles for responding to women in distress,” the statement said.

This multi-dimensional ambitious project will augment and enhance overall technologically-enabled policing in Delhi and help prevent and curb all forms of crimes against women, apart from others.

With an objective to create a safe, secure and empowering environment for women in public places, to enable them to pursue all opportunities without the threat of gender-based violence and/or harassment, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, had approved the project under the Nirbhaya Fund for implementation by the Delhi Police in the national capital.

Ensuring, through the use of technology, prompt availability of professionally equipped police personnel to reach women in distress, increased and demonstrative presence or visibility in public places through the installation of CCTV cameras and deployment of dedicated women-safety mobile police vans, 24×7 CCTV monitoring of public areas frequently visited by women and susceptible to crimes against women are some of the objectives of the project.

The survey of field locations identified for installation of field devices — CCTV cameras, poles and junction box, etc — has been completed and work has started on the installation of field devices, it said.