8,189 more CCTV cameras in Chennai soon

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police have planned to install 8,189 CCTV cameras at 2,730 locations. The city has a total of 83,226 CCTV cameras including 22,229 ones installed through the sponsors.
The new cameras will be installed in the next six months and will include automatic number-plate recognition cameras (ANPR), indexing cameras and those with face recognition facilities. Police said these devices will help maintain traffic discipline better.

Of the 8,189 devices, the city police have planned to install 5,250 in 1,750 locations under Safe City Project and the rest in 980 locations under Mega City Policing Project.
At 980 locations, 150 face recognition software (FRS)-fitted cameras, 375 ANPR cameras and 2,250 indexing cameras would be installed. The rest of the cameras will include 70 FRS, 170 ANPR and 1,000 indexing devices.
Meanwhile, 60,997 CCTV cameras were geo-tagged with unique ID codes to know the exact location of them. The move helped police better monitor these cameras. Respective jurisdiction inspectors have been assigned the additional task to monitor these cameras. They are held responsible if any one of these cameras is found faulty.
While in 2021-22 the state government sanctioned 1.1 crore for repair and maintenance of the existing cameras, in 2022-23, the government sanctioned 1.5 crore for the purpose.
CCTV cameras, considered to be the third eye of policing, facilitate speedy detection of crime, help provide better evidence for prosecution, better safety in public places for women and children and create a better sense of security among the public.