Goa Police to tap young minds for AI prototypes to improve investigations

Panaji: Keen on enhancing its investigation capabilities with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the Goa Police are looking to tap young minds from across the state in creating AI prototypes to help address nine core policing concerns — or ‘problem statements’ — and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the force’s investigations.

Towards this end, a non-stop, 48-hour-long hackathon will be organised by the police starting from 7pm on Sep 19 to allow the top 36 teams of students to design solutions for smart patrolling, detection of deepfake videos, synthetic voices and fraudulent online content, assisting visitors at police stations, e-bandobast, CCTV and digital media forensic analyses, scrutiny of data from the 112 helpline, and investigation of sexual offences.

Crime branch SP Rahul Gupta said that where the investigation of sexual offences is concerned for instance, the police force is looking to develop an AI-driven assistant to provide officers with “case-specific investigation steps by referring to SOPs, legal provisions (under the BNS, Pocso and IT Acts), model chargesheets and predefined checklists relevant to sexual offences. It should also be able to analyse relevant court judgments and have an upload feature to highlight admissibility of evidence, investigation pitfalls, and judicial expectations in sexual offence trials,” among other features.

For detection of deepfake videos, the police are looking for a tool that can pinpoint facial manipulations and voice cloning in common video formats. “It should be a reliable forensic tool to help law enforcement identify manipulated media and present validated reports in court,” Gupta said.

Teams of students that will participate in the Sep 19 hackathon will be shortlisted on Sep 14 based on the submission of their abstracts. Of the final 36 teams, four teams each will be selected to develop prototypes for any one of the nine ‘problem statements’. Once the hackathon ends at 7pm on Sep 21, the designed prototypes must be submitted to the police at the venue. The winning teams in each of the nine categories will be awarded cash prizes of Rs 50,000.

Among the other significant AI tools the police are looking for is a reliable verification system for night patrolling and nakabandi duties, a system for detection of synthetic voices and voice-based impersonation (especially in prisons), and a cyber-patrolling system to track, identify, and flag fraudulent and illegal online content targeting residents and tourists in Goa.