Delhi Police will have separate drone unit in 2-3 years: Rakesh Asthana

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Thursday said that within two-three years, the force will have a separate unit especially for drones.

The drones and counter done equipment will be inducted for handling law and order arrangements, situational awareness, traffic management, securing vulnerable installations and surveillance, Asthana said while addressing the media at its annual press meet.

"Delhi Police is equipping itself with drone technology and keeping this in mind, in the coming two-three years, we will be having a separate unit especially for drones for not only using it but for also its maintenance and handling. We are very seriously and expeditiously working on it," he added.

Stressing on the effective usage of technology, the top cop said at present, more than 15,215 CCTV cameras are run by Delhi Police in the national capital but soon 10,000 CCTV cameras would also be added under the 'Safe City Project', which is worth Rs 890 crores, funded by the government via Nirbhaya fund.

"Around 90 per cent of cases are solved through scanning of CCTV cameras and mobile forensics," said the police chief adding that the technology is playing an important part in solving cases.

After commissioning 'Safe City Project', Delhi Police said they will also be integrating 15,215 existing CCTV cameras of Delhi Police, 1.40 lakhs CCTV cameras installed by Delhi Government and other CCTVs installed by the Market Welfare Associations, Residents Welfare Associations etc.

There will also be a state of the art integrated command and control centre with latest video analytics using Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Predictive policing techniques to be established under safe city project in a phased manner, the police said.