Aravindhan elated post int’l award

Known for his fitness and pleasing looks P. Aravindhan IPS, Superintendent of Thiruvallur is now part of the elite list of officers who has won the prestigious Skoch award.

P. Aravindhan IPS says, “This is my first recognition and I'm happy to receive the Skoch Award for the Facetagr app developed when I worked as Deputy Commissioner of Police, T.Nagar.”

He adds, “This also motivates me to do more.”  He is also planning to launch the Facetagr app in Thiruvallur.

Facetagr, the face-recognition mobile app was developed in 2017 by Tamil Nadu IPS officer P. Aravindhan with his team. The application has also helped police officials to identify and catch criminals in the state.

Once the scanned face is tracked in the database of the app lists out every known detail about the offender from background to previous criminal records along with names of police stations where cases were lodged or pending against the person. The app has been installed on all the police officer’s mobile phones.

According to P. Aravindhan, they have built a database which includes 70,000 criminals along with their photos and criminal history which includes their background details as well. “During the Diwali season in the year 2017 and 2018, the app was really useful and a huge number of crimes came down in T.Nagar at that point of time”, says P Aravindhan.

The idea behind the Facetagr app? “When we were installing many CCTV cameras in the Chennai city, during that time analyzing the feed and catching the criminals was time-consuming. So, that’s when we came with this thought of a solution were its data analytical type of solution which will help in saving a lot of time especially in sensitive cases.”

The Facetagr has been installed in most patrol vehicles and helps police verify credentials of any suspect detailed at any location in the city.

Currently, the app is functional only on Android phones, the developers plan on extending the app to the iOS platform in the future.