MADURAI: Madurai city police commissioner Prem Anand Sinha on Monday inaugurated technology-driven mask rule enforcement. While the streets in commercial areas are overcrowded due to Diwali shopping, the initiative will help increase compliance to the mask rule, he said.
A software designed for this purpose has been installed in 20 already existing CCTV cameras in Thilagar Thildal and Vilakkuthoon police station limits.
The technology will help identify people who don't wear masks and impose fine on them.
“By upgrading the existing CCTV network with the help of this software, we intend to monitor mask compliance, register cases based on pictorial evidence and thus contribute to the fight against the pandemic,” Sinha said.
Police officers, who have been given access to a mobile app connected to the software, will receive an alert if anyone crosses the camera without a mask. Based on this pictorial evidence, the violator will be fined.
The commissioner said a Bengaluru-based company developed the software. The project is funded using the fine amount after getting due sanction from the district collector.
The city police alone have booked 46,467 cases so far with an average of 8,448 cases a month. Rs 88.7 lakh has been collected as fine amount, the commissioner said.
He said that since the software is in place, police need not to keep walking across streets to check mask compliance. They can stay nearby the CCTV camera and stop people once they get alert on their mobile phone.
The initiative will increase the responsibility of the police officer in ensuring the mask rule as superiors will keep a tab on the number of alerts received and number of people who faced action. It will also create fear among the public that even if there are no policemen nearby, cameras will be watching their movement, he said.
The software will help generate data on the percentage of people wearing marks in each area. In future, the video analysis software will be used to detect movement of criminals, the commissioner said.
The software was installed a month ago and the results have been satisfactory, a police official said.