The Assam budget 2019-20 has proposed more teeth to Assam police’s capability in stopping crime before it happens by announcing an artificial intelligence-powered data analysis facility for predictive policing.
Predictive policing is a method of predicting and identifying potential criminal activity, developed in the US in 2011, that uses mathematical, predictive analytics and other analytical techniques so that the police can take precautions and monitor the suspects better.
“In the ensuing financial year, a big data analysis facility will be raised under the project, which will be based on artificial intelligence technology. This will be a futuristic step for predictive policing,” Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in his budget speech at the Assembly on Wednesday.
A source in the Assam police said in order to turn the state police into a SMART (strict and sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsive, techno savvy and trained) force — as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the introduction of predictive policing was one of the priorities of the department.
“The data analysis facility will contain a variety of local and national police databases containing information like crime logs, stop and search records, custody records, and missing person reports. The artificial intelligence will check and cross-check the databases to profile those who have recurring criminal incidences and inform the department to monitor their activities to prevent them from committing one in future,” a highly-placed source in the department said.
In another shot in the arm to policing in the state that shares borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan, the Centre approved the use of space technology in border management to check intrusion, informed minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju.
Assam shares a porous border with Bangladesh, which will also come under the radar of the border management programme, that is being run by the ministry of defence along with the Indian Space Research Organisation.