Find out how some Indian states are using AI to locate missing people

As per the records of National Crime Records Bureau, over 60,000 children alone go missing each year. More formidable is the fact that 50% of children that went missing till 2016 remained untraced.

After disrupting the way police forces in India operate, Staqu, a Gurgaon-based AI start-up is utilising Artificial Intelligence in finding missing Indians. Driven to solve the real-world problems through artificial intelligence, Staqu has come up with a mobile app for police forces that runs on an AI enabled software to digitize the records of missing people. It find them through facial recognition, geo-fencing and hot-spot analysis.

Through AI-powered facial recognition, the solution is currently live with three state-level police departments– Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Presently, the app carries a database of more than 12,000 people that have gone missing. Post the elections, Staqu plans to make the solution live in Punjab, further following it up with more integrations with other state-level police departments.

In addition to digitizing the records of missing people, Staqu conducts hot-spot and geo-fencing analysis to enable the search. Under hot-spot analysis, the AI solution studies historical records of missing people – the spots that served as hideouts for child traffickers or kidnappers in the past. This is further coupled with geo-fencing analysis; once a child or a person is reported missing, the AI solution starts mulling over the data from nearby areas like railway stations and bus stops – locations within the 6-hour radius or more, depending on the time since the person was reported missing. The quick and real-time analysis generates leads for the police forces.

Commenting on the latest development, Atul Rai, CEO and Co-Founder of Staqu, said, “At Staqu, it has been our utmost endeavour to utilise technology in solving the real-world problems. India has been suffering at the hands of child traffickers, kidnappers, and other miscreants. While we have been assisting police forces to leverage AI in their fight against crime, we felt the need to create a dedicated solution for finding the missing Indians.”

“Our AI-powered app digitizes missing people records and helps the task forces retrieve this information in real-time through facial recognition. Via hot-spot and geo-fencing analysis, the app helps police forces by generating leads for dedicated and focused patrolling. We plan to bring the solution to various state-level police forces and are affirmative that it will help the task forces in their search for the missing Indians.” he added.