Big Data for Traffic and Law Enforcement

Here is the promised article on “Big data for traffic and law enforcement”. I have become very busy with a new startup and could not spend any time writing new articles. I apologize for the delay. Let’s get started.

In my previous company, I worked on an RFP from Chicago police department which was about proposing a state of the art law enforcement solution with current day technologies to replace a 20 year old technology that is in place. I think it will help the local police here too if the same solution is implemented in Hyderabad. I am pretty convinced about our readiness to implement such a solution as I see a lot of news in television and newspapers about the efforts by the new Indian government on building smart cities.

The word “smart” makes me think of complete automation so that the solution is more efficient, scalable, and sustainable with no or less human efforts on a day to day basis. Traffic and Law enforcement is a very important area that touches the life of every citizen every day. The question is - how to take the existing traffic and law enforcement to the next level?

Let’s start by discussing the existing technology and process in place.

Note: These pictures displayed above are copyright of the Hyderabad Traffic Police

Let’s now discuss the solution:

The solution comes in 6 modules:

1. e-challan Automation
2. In-car Automation
3. Vehicle Tracking
4. Secure collaboration among cops (web & Mobile)
5. Citizen complaints and Redressal
6. Traffic Monitoring app for Citizens & API for Organizations

Let us discuss each module in detail:

1. E-challan Automation

High resolution cameras fixed at every signal can capture numbers of every vehicle and the number plate reading software extracts vehicle numbers from the image. When anyone jumps the signal, the cameras raise the traffic ticket and these tickets are sent as a traffic bill to the vehicle owner by the end of the month similar to that of an electricity bill. If the traffic ticket is not paid on time, penalty is added in the next month bill. This not just eliminates the “human intervention” but also improves signal jumping dramatically as a traffic police can only take a snap on a few vehicles and may not be there or cover all the time. The traffic police personnel can be deployed for better purposes of nation building than to hold the camera in hand and stand on the middle of the road the whole day to take picture of vehicles.

2. In-car Automation

Few cameras (front: left, right), (inside: left, right and back) will be fixed to each cop’s car, 2 to 5 depending on the traffic or road that the car travels frequently. Each camera can take a snap of 1 car number plate per second. Front vehicles, back vehicles, Vehicles parked can be scanned automatically and each vehicle plate number is checked with criminal database of the entire state, pending traffic tickets, lost vehicles database, duplicate plates can be identified on the screen of the laptop instantly. The police personnel simply have to drive the car at 40 to 50 kmph and the cameras and the technology will do its job perfectly. The new cars given to Telangana police will make perfect sense :)

3. Vehicle tracking

This feature will help police personnel to know how many people with criminal backgrounds have passed a particular road, at given dates, between given time frame etc… This capability will help police personnel to solve various mysterious cases easily. Not just the after crime detection but sometimes this technology can also help avoid future crimes based on data, algorithms and people histories.

4. Secure Collaboration Among Cops (Web & Mobile)

All the Police personnel are connected with one another and can access any data based on intelligence from their cars and mobile phones. They can collaborate effectively to avoid crimes to move from one place to the other in times of terrorist attacks, dharnas, political rally’s, festivals, and all other public gatherings. Every police personnels movement during the day is captured with geo mapping technology and the reporting officers have absolute control over their subordinates in real time. Every police personnel has to be alert on duty and all the conversations with citizens are video recorded that will enable police personnel to behave more politely with citizens helping the department to earn respect among citizens.

5. Citizen Complaints and Redressal

Any complaint from a citizen either from the police station, website or from the citizen’s mobile phone reaches the nearest police personnel on duty so the respective personnel like fire, hospital, police and others can reach the place in the shortest possible time and save lives. The police personnel cannot close the ticket by himself, when he tries to close the case…a sms is sent to the citizen and depending upon the response of the citizen the case closure depends, if the citizen says no, he is not given proper remedy the case will be reopened and escalated to the reporting officer automatically until the citizen is happy. This will truly result in citizen friendly policing and reduce any malpractices prevailing in the police department. The best part is both the citizen and the reporting officers have the status of the case anytime.

6. Traffic Monitoring app for Citizens & API for Organizations

PERFECT BIG DATA USE CASE

This data generated from thousands of cameras from each location can be used to analyze the traffic in any specific route and can be used by citizens and other organizations for various business purposes. Approximately each camera can take 10,000 vehicle number plates per day. Imagine the amount of data from all the cameras fixed around the city can generate per day and per month. This is a typical Big Data use case. Solutions that work in bits and pieces cannot be compared to a comprehensive solution like this one. Apart from vehicle number plate reading technology, huge data of a city plays vital role. Leveraging this data using big data technologies alone can make this solution possible.  

This project is definitely not be an expense, Instead, it will act as a revenue multiplier for the police department with which new police stations, vehicles, cameras, salary increments, retirement benefits can all be enjoyed by the police personnel, while enhancing the safety standards of the city to the next level.

NOTE: I have already completed this project up to 60% and have currently put it on hold due to personal reasons. Any individual or a company interested in taking this project forward can contact me and I will be happy to help

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