To stop lock-up deaths, SC eyes AI-controlled CCTVs at thanas

NEW DELHI: In view of the increasing number of custodial deaths and torture at police stations, SC on Monday proposed taking the help of artificial intelligence to monitor all CCTV cameras installed in the stations, which would automatically trigger an alarm to alert concerned authorities when a camera was switched off or became non-functional.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said that IITs should be entrusted with the task to develop software which would pave the way for monitoring of all CCTV cameras from one place, and all police stations and offices of other investigating agencies could be put under the watch of these cameras.”We were thinking of a control room in which there is no human intervention… We will think of involving some IIT to provide us a solution so that every CCTV can be monitored at a particular place, and even the monitoring should not be human but by AI,” SC said while reserving its order on the issue.The court was hearing a suo motu case in which it took cognisance of a media report on custodial deaths in police stations and decided to examine implementation of its earlier order on installing CCTV cameras in all police stations. The report said that there had been 11 deaths in the last 7 to 8 months in police custody in Rajasthan.SC had in 2020 passed directions making installation of CCTVs in police stations mandatory. It had directed all states and UTs to install CCTV with night vision cameras in every police station in the country.SC had also directed the Centre to install CCTVs in the offices of central agencies – CBI, NIA, ED, NCB, DRI, SFIO, and any other central agency office where interrogation of people is carried out.Senior advocate Siddharth Dave told the bench that SC’s directive was not being implemented, adding that even the Centre was not enforcing it in its agencies. SC posted the case after a week to pass order and asked Dave to file a written note.