Editorial . . . . . . . . 

Data generation is useless unless it is analysed to create meaningful knowledge for problem-solving. The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) yearly ‘Crime in India’ data series offers essential information that may be analysed to predict crime patterns and design prevention tactics. Digital technology and Artificial Intelligence can help with a wide range of data analysis and prediction, but they demand a large amount of capital for technology adoption and human resource development. The launch of the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems (CCTNS) marked a significant step forward for the Bureau of Police Research and Development in its efforts to use big data available in the country to combat crime. Hackathons are the only method for police to keep two steps ahead of criminals, and they emphasize the importance of bringing them to every state. Although technology has connected more than 6000 numbers of police stations across the country. The Central agencies which are yet to join the CCTNS as soon as possible to ensure data accuracy resulted in the CCTNS database receiving higher quantities of high-quality crime data.

The Inter-operable Criminal Justice System is a shared platform for information exchange and analytics across all criminal justice support services, including police, forensics, prosecution, courts, and prisons. Phase I of the project installed IT systems that allowed nationwide searches of police, prison, and court databases in all 50 states and territories. Consumption of profiling data based on key identifiers such as FIR numbers, Case numbers, and Prisoner numbers, access to Arms License Information System data by all supports, training of officers and officials from prosecution and forensic laboratories, and data consumption by courts are all features of the project. The project has so far registered about one crore fingerprints, demonstrating the limitless possibilities of data application to improve crime management considerably faster and more precisely. Union Home Minister  Mr. Shah stated in a speech given on the 37th Foundation Day of the NCRB that if this fingerprint data are made available to all police stations, there will be no need to follow offenders because their addresses can be discovered on the police station’s database after acquiring their fingerprints. For many police stations in rural India, data speed is an issue that must be addressed with bandwidth solutions to enable faster upload/download.

The National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), which was created as part of the ICJS ecosystem to identify and track repeat and chronic sexual offenders, demonstrates how data may be transformed into useful analytic tools for crime management. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the NDSO data is utilized in pre-employment character and antecedent verifications to prevent sexual offences in the workplace. In Phase II of the ICJS project, the ecosystem will be built on the premise of “one data, one entry,” which means that data entered in one pillar will be available in other pillars, preventing double or multiple entries of the same data. The use of existing NCRB data analysis is limited to the framework of the Indian Penal Code, leaving out societal perspectives, according to Union Minister Amit Shah. “If crime data isn’t used to minimize crime, we’re not getting the most out of it,” he continues, emphasizing the importance of conducting analysis of the stored crime data utilizing modern tools and technology and diverse frameworks and perspectives.

The availability and accessibility of crime data can assist organizations, think tanks, researchers, universities, and data analysts in conducting research projects using the National Crime Records Bureau or Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems databases to develop valuable logical solutions to prevent and reduce crime. This offers up a lot of opportunities for universities, think tanks, and research organizations to collaborate on research initiatives with the BPRD and NCRB.

The promotion of data science as an academic discipline in colleges and universities will assist in the development of a pool of data scientists who will be needed to work on such collaborative initiatives. Data scientists will benefit from collaborations with the Indian Institute of Technology and other technical institutes to build IT and AI-enabled data analysis solutions and tools. If the available funds and resources are wisely and widely used, scientific data mining and analysis of crime data will result in a radical revolution in crime control management in India.