Moscow Subway has unveiled plans to launch by the end of the year its own smart video surveillance system, Izvestia.ru reported.

New cameras will reportedly be scanning each passenger at his entry and further on. This is expected to lend a reliable hand to both the local police and subway security.

As the project unfolds, scanned images will be matched against law enforcement databases; now, at inception, the system enables only tracking, not yet recognition. The project will reportedly start by identifying a person between the moment he enters a station and the moment he exits, paying special attention to individuals who linger too much on a platform or in any other area at a station. Also, the system will focus on people with “non-standard” behavior, including aggressive conduct, and those trying to hide some bulky objects behind their clothes. All this is said to be uploaded to the system and identified automatically.

Another advantage the cameras are expected to bring is reining in non-paying passengers. Once captured on a camera image, a perpetrator won’t be able to get into a subway station again at all.

Plans are to place about 20,000 new video cameras.
Moscow Subway transports more than eight million people on a daily basis.