Monday, June 28, 2010

Law Enforcement Intelligence In India

Law enforcement intelligence is an area largely unexplored in India. Till not the law enforcement agencies of India are predominantly relying upon traditional methods of intelligence gathering and investigations. There is no doubt that these traditional methods would always remain useful; and nothing can substitute them. However, information and communication technology (ICT) can further strengthen these traditional methods and can fine tune them to achieve greater results.

Although many ambitious projects have been proposed in India regarding use of ICT for law enforcement purposes, yet they have to take a good start in order to bring them into mainstream. There are many blockages that are hindering their actual use and implementation. The biggest obstacle seems to be lack of safeguards to prevent abuse of civil liberties of Indians.

India has neither a dedicated privacy law nor any data protection legislation. Even the basic legal framework for law enforcement machinery is missing and India is managing it through colonial and outdates laws that date backs even before the Constitution of India came into force.

In this background, we have to plan the launch and implementation of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project of India (CCTNS Project). Presently, the CCTNS Project of India has not been properly planned and implemented.

At Perry4Law Techno-Legal Base (PTLB) we are in the process of developing a techno-legal strategy that can accommodate both technological as well as legal mandates. On the technology side, we are building a software database that has almost all the necessary software and utilities necessary for the successful implementation of the CCTNS project and similar projects.

On the legal side we have already suggested a 10 point legal framework for law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India. We are in the process of detailed analysis of these points as well as incorporating new and contemporary ideas and suggestion in the same.

The law enforcement intelligence in India cannot succeed till it is techno-legal in nature. The real problem is that the police is not much aware about the technological issues. Similarly, the technology providers are not aware about the police work. So we have to make partial and piece meal efforts to make a larger picture.

At PTLB we are trying to provide both technological as well as legal solutions at a single place. This would avoid unnecessary wastage of time, energy and money as the most effective solution can be proceeded with immediately. Any person, institution, agency, organisation, etc wishing to work in association with us, may contact us with his/its proposal and we would be happy to extend out techno-legal expertise for the same.