Delhi Police adopts sketch-matching tech to identify suspects

The Delhi Police will soon deploy a 'reverse image search' software that can match suspect sketches with its database of criminal photographs, significantly reducing the time and effort required in identifying accused persons, an official said on Monday.

The image reconstruction software, being developed by the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, will assist law enforcement agencies in quickly matching facial sketches prepared from eyewitness accounts with digital images in police records, he said.

"Earlier, such comparisons had to be made manually, which was time-consuming and lacked accuracy. This new software automates the process and increases the precision of suspect identification," a police source said.

The system uses machine learning to process a sketch, filter through visual data and shortlist matching images from a central database. It allows investigators to upload suspect sketches and receive close matches in real time.

According to police officials, the software is particularly useful in cases such as murder, robbery and sexual assault, where the only clue may be a sketch based on a victim's or witness's memory.

It will also be helpful in cases where no direct image or CCTV footage of the suspect is available, they said.

"This tool...could be a game changer in solving cases where leads are limited," the officer highlighted.

Police officials said these advanced tools are already proving useful in cracking complex cyber and physical crimes. Delhi Police is already using a host of forensic and data recovery technologies, including the software for retrieving data from corrupted storage devices and mobile phones.