Automated facial recognition system (AFRS) is a mobile and web application hosted in NCRB’s data centre in Delhi but used by all police stations in the country. AFRS works by comparing the new image of an unidentified person often taken from CCTV footage with the existing database to find a match and identify the person.  The artificial intelligence technology used for pattern-finding and matching is called “neural networks”. Currently, facial recognition in India is done manually.

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NCRB’s request call:

• The NCRB, which manages crime data for police, would like to use automated facial recognition to identify criminals, missing people, and unidentified dead bodies, as well as for “crime prevention”.
• Its Request for Proposal calls for gathering CCTV footage, as well as photos from newspapers, raids, and sketches.
• The project is aimed at being compatible with other biometrics such as iris and fingerprints.
• NCRB has proposed integrating this facial recognition system with multiple existing databases.
• The most prominent is the NCRB-managed Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).
• Facial recognition has been proposed in the CCTNS program since its origin.
• The new facial recognition system will be integrated with Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS), as well as state-specific systems, the Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT), and the Khoya Paya portal on missing children.

Need for AFRS:

• Automated Facial Recognition System can play a very vital role in improving outcomes in the area of Criminal identification and verification by facilitating easy recording, analysis, retrieval and sharing of Information between different organisations.
• While fingerprints and iris scans provide far more accurate matching results, automatic facial recognition is an easier solution especially for identification amongst crowds.
• The integration of fingerprint database, face recognition software and iris scans will massively boost the police department’s crime investigation capabilities.
• It will also help civilian verification when needed. No one will be able to get away with a fake ID.
• It will also help civilian verification when needed.
• It also plans to offer citizen services, such as passport verification, crime reporting, online tracking of case progress, grievance reporting against police officers etc.

Concerns:

• Cyber experts across the world have cautioned against government abuse of facial recognition technology, as it can be used as tool of control and risks inaccurate results.
• Amid NCRB’s controversial step to install an automated facial recognition system, India should take note of the ongoing privacy debate in the US.
• In the absence of data protection law, Indian citizens are more vulnerable to privacy abuses.
• Use of surveillance cameras and facial recognition constrict the rights of particular class of people.
• In the US, the FBI and Department of State operate one of the largest facial recognition systems.
• International organisations have also condemned the Chinese government on its use of surveillance cameras and facial recognition to constrict the rights of Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority.

Conclusion:

In light of the fact that India does not have any legal framework to safeguard the personal data of its citizens, nor any sort of judicial oversight over public surveillance programmes, the current proposal for AFRS raises eyebrows.