Chennai Police gears up to launch hi-tech drone unit

Chennai Police is all set to deploy a special drone unit to boost its efficiency. The drones, equipped with hi-tech cameras and powered by Artificial Intelligence would be a part of an exclusive police drone unit set to be launched soon, the Greater Chennai police said on Saturday.

The unit will comprise six swift action surveillance drones, a heavy-lift multirotor drone and two long range surveillance drones, with all the drones have a range of five to 10 km.

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The drones have multiple uses, like assessing crowd for management purpose and identifying accused using facial recognition feature. The drones with features ranging from Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to thermal cameras are expected to help authorities in more than one way. Taking an appropriate decision by precisely monitoring the ground situation and using them even during night are among the uses.

Launch of apps for use by police authorities including one to tackle/prevent cyber crimes are on the cards, a senior police officer said.

(With inputs from agencies)