Dubai police are now using Google Glass to catch traffic violators

Google Glass has been available for some time now, and while it’s now available to the general public, it still cost $1,500 and is definitely what you’d call a “niche product”. That’s not to put Glass down of course, all new technology takes some time to become mainstream or even acceptable by the general public and well, Glass is definitely something people will take a long time to warm to. That doesn’t mean that Google’s ambitious project should be written off, as the wearable has excellent potential in industry and law enforcement, thanks mostly to the built-in camera. Now, it’s being reported that the Dubai Police are to use Glass to help them catch criminals.

Police in Dubai have begun using Google Glass as part of an effort to crack down on traffic violations. An official with the emirate’s police force confirmed to Gulf News this week that traffic officers are testing the wearable devices, adding that the department has already developed two custom applications: one to capture and upload photos of traffic violators, and another to identify wanted cars based on licensed plate numbers. It’s not yet clear when police will start using the technology on a wider basis, but Colonel Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, general director of smart services at Dubai Police, tells Gulf News that if the trials go well, the department would adopt the technology more broadly once Google Glass becomes available. “If it passes our testing criteria as well as we see that it is a useful device, then we might decide to launch it and buy more of it,” Al Razooqi said. Using the apps developed by his unit, police can capture and upload photos to the department’s database by tapping the side of the headset, and can capture license numbers simply by looking at a car’s plates. These numbers will be automatically cross-referenced against a central database to flag any wanted cars.