All of these successful police investigations were aided by one crucial tool: the Facial Recognition System (FRS), linked to 463 of the 3,675 CCTV cameras in the Mumbai Division of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), covering 114 stations from Churchgate to Surat in the north and up to Jalgaon in the east.
According to officials, Western Railway was the first division in the country’s rail network to install FRS linked to CCTV cameras. “From last year, they are being installed in other divisions as well — eventually, the entire network will be covered. We get requests for assistance from police forces across the country and Central agencies,” a Western Railway official said.
Sources said Mumbai Police units, which operate over 5,000 cameras, are also linking FRS to their network.
In the case of the Portuguese tourist, who uploaded a video showing two men harassing her for a photograph at Dhobi Ghat near Mahalaxmi railway station on February 23, police initially drew a blank after scanning their own camera network. Investigators then took screenshots from the video and approached the RPF, which quickly generated a “hit” on the FRS.
The system found the accused on CCTV footage from February 13 at the Marine Lines station. Police then used their own camera network outside the station to track the two men — one of whom had fled to Bihar by then.
The FRS identifies individuals based on facial features such as the distance between the eyes, forehead, nose, ears and cheekbones, converting them into data to create a unique numerical “faceprint”.
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The FRS-equipped CCTV cameras are connected to software available at Mumbai Central or RPF police stations along the division. If a person on the watchlist passes any of these cameras, the software immediately issues an alert, triggering a chain of actions (see box).
In addition to photographs of accused persons uploaded after incidents, images of suspects are also fed into the system.
In 2024 alone, over 10,000 photographs of individuals being tracked by agencies such as the NIA and CBI were uploaded.
“So, even if the person may not have been spotted till then, once the person enters the platform, we get a hit on the system,” the official said.
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Another key feature of the system is its ability to map patterns in an individual’s movements, which helps investigators track suspects.
In the case of a professor from NM College who was stabbed on January 24 at Malad railway station, RPF obtained footage of the accused, Omkar Shinde, and fed it into the FRS. The system revealed a pattern: Shinde boarded a train every morning from Malad at a fixed time and returned via Marine Lines in the evening. This helped police arrest him. “At times you may know the person was at the station but don’t know where he went from there. With the pattern, it enables us to apprehend the person,” an official said.
The tool has also proved crucial in tracing missing children, especially at crowded stations such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Churchgate. “Forces searching for missing children across the country approach us with photographs. In most cases, we find a match and provide information like where they were last seen,” an official said.
Even when footage is unclear, the system can generate possible matches with varying confidence levels. “Unlike in clear footage where FRS will give an exact match, in cases where footage is unclear it may give 10 matches with various percentages of match with the original photograph,” the official said.
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Records of cases solved by the RPF alone underline the system’s impact:
- 2024: 54 cases of passenger baggage theft, three robberies.
- 2025: 59 cases of passenger baggage theft, five cases of bag snatching.
- 2026 (up to February): 15 cases of baggage theft.
“These figures do not include the 10-15 requests received by the RPF daily from various police units,” an official said.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Vineet Abhishek, Chief PRO, Western Railway, said, “The safety and security of our commuters is paramount and to that end, we keep using the most advanced technology to enhance safety measures.”
An RPF official said the system was installed in 2022 alongside CCTV cameras on the Western Division. “The vendor was asked to install FRS too around the time. Over the years, we found the system to be quite useful. Apart from being helpful for us, several police units approach us daily seeking access to the network, like in the Saif Ali Khan attack case,” the official said, referring to the man who allegedly attacked the actor at his Khar residence in June 2025.
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“The process of FRS installation has also been almost completed on the Mumbai section of Central Railways, and training for staff on how to use it is underway,” another official said.
