Technology can make policing better — and also more dangerous 

News: On March 11, the NCRB Foundation Day, the union home minister said that the second phase of the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) Project is going to be completed by the year 2026. 

Features & advantages of ICJS

The system will include artificial intelligence, fingerprint systems and other tools of predictive policing.

For example, Recently, the Indore Police Commissioner unveiled a “fingerprint-based criminal record data fetching system” developed to control crime in the state. 

Advantages

– The CCTNS and ICJS can lead to cross-referencing of data. It can help to make policing more efficient. 

– The criminals can be traced easily. For example, if a small thumb impression machine is added to a phone. It can be placed to capture fingerprints at checking points, public spaces, etc. All information about a person’s criminal record will be pulled up.  

What are the issues with the ICJS project?

Privacy concerns: The predictive policing practices will give birth to mass surveillance. It may violate the private which has been declared as a fundamental right to informational privacy by The Supreme Court in K.S Puttaswamy Case.  

Oppression of communities: The mass surveillance may be put on certain oppressed caste communities, like Nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, which are referred as Habitual Offenders (HO).

– For example, after an introduction of the Commissionerate system in Bhopal and Indore, members of Vimukta and Adivasi communities are being summoned as part of “Operation clean“. Those subject to policing rarely includes dominant caste persons having resources, who may have even been convicted of a crime. With ICJS and CCTNS, this system may be replicated as a pan-India phenomenon. 

What is the way forward? 

Any measure that seeks to collect information or surveillance must be legal, necessary, and proportionate so that it does not violate the fundamental right to informational privacy. 

Source: The post is based on an article “Technology can make policing better – and also more dangerous” published in the Indian Express on 25th March 2022.