The Sindh government Thursday decided to install automatic numberplate recognition cameras (ANPR) at the entry and exit points of toll plazas across the province to fight crime.
The decision was made during a meeting of the provincial cabinet presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. It was attended by provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Chairman Planning and Development Department Hassan Naqvi, Principal Secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi, and other concerned officers.
During the meeting, the provincial home department informed the cabinet that the smart surveillance cameras would take pictures of cars’ number plates and people sitting in the front seats. The cameras would read the numberplates’ characters to identify vehicles and use face recognition features to identify the passengers, according to a statement issued after the meeting.
The pictures would be sent to the Central Police Office’s central monitoring room in real-time. The home department said the project would help prevent and detect crime by identifying vehicles linked to crimes, including thievery and hit-and-run, and provide early warning of suspicious vehicles entering the city.
The cameras would also have the capacity to identify suspects associated with a particular vehicle by using facial recognition features and tracking their movements.
