Police records go to a central database, but nobody checks them for warning signs
FIRs from nearly every police station are entered in the national crime database (CCTNS) and linked with courts and prisons. Nobody runs those records for patterns such as stacked sections, repeat complainants, outlier stations or undertrials already due for release.
Open for ideas, evidence and questions.
What we know
The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), run by NCRB for the Home Ministry, was started in 2009 to put every police station's FIRs, investigations and charge sheets online. In 2021 the Home Ministry told Parliament that more than 95% of police stations were using it. The Inter-operable Criminal Justice System links it with e-Courts, e-Prisons, prosecution and forensics. Since a Supreme Court order of September 2016, most FIRs must be uploaded to police websites within 24 hours, except in sensitive cases such as sexual offences.
The data is used mainly to search records and compile statistics. Patterns that point to false or stacked cases, or to people stuck in jail, could be flagged automatically and then checked by a person. For example:
- sections added that the complainant's own statement does not support;
- the same complainant, witness or middleman across many unrelated cases;
- police stations with unusually high rates of arrests, added sections or cases closed as "false";
- FIRs naming whole families or young children as accused;
- arrests for offences punishable up to seven years without a recorded notice to appear;
- undertrials who have served half the maximum sentence and qualify for release;
- atrocity-relief payments that are late or duplicated across districts.
Such a system could only flag cases for review. It could not decide anything, stop an FIR from being registered or hold back relief to a victim, and it would have to be audited for bias against any community.
Open questions
- Who should run such checks so that the police are not marking their own work, and who sees the flags?
- How do we stop an automated flag from becoming a reason to refuse an FIR or delay relief?
- Which of these patterns could be measured from public data today, such as FIRs on police websites, e-Courts orders and NCRB tables?
- What audits would show whether the flags fall unfairly on any caste, religion or region?
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