Delhi Police’s facial recognition system (FRS) flagged at least 25 people as present at the Jantar Mantar protests between July 20 and 26, despite those individuals being in jail at the time, according to an investigation by The Indian Express. The police had told the Supreme Court that the system identified 2,873 people with criminal records at the protests, raising concerns about the system’s accuracy.
The Indian Express examined 205 people from the list of those flagged who had links to serious offences and found that 25 were in custody during the protest dates. These included 17 individuals facing murder charges, four accused of rape or other sexual offences including two under the POCSO Act, and four charged with attempted murder. The flagged dates for these jailed individuals were July 24, 25, and 26. Police, jail, and court records confirmed their incarceration at the time the FRS identified them at the protest site.
Delhi Police’s affidavit to the Supreme Court on August 17 stated that out of the 2,873 matches, 2,402 came from the police biometric database Crime Kundli, while 471 were from criminal records. The police said that further action would be taken only after field verification. The discovery that jailed individuals were flagged at protests calls into question the reliability of facial recognition technology in law enforcement, especially in monitoring public gatherings.
The Delhi Police’s use of FRS at the Jantar Mantar protests has sparked debate over privacy and technology accuracy. The next official update on the police’s verification process and any corrective measures is awaited following the Supreme Court proceedings and public scrutiny of the system’s performance.