FRS entirely legal and under law

Commissioner of Police CV Anand tells High Court

PNS | Hyderabad

A city-based social activist has approached the Telangana High Court seeking information on why the police collected his photo while he was returning home. He said the incident happened during the Covid pandemic when a partial lockdown was in force.

Social activist SQ Masood sent a legal notice to the police but received no response. After that, the activist approached the Telangana High Court and the Hyderabad City Commissioner of Police CV Anand told the High Court that facial recognition systems (FRS) were totally legal as per law.

The use of facial recognition systems (FRS) is entirely legal, under various provisions of the law, Anand said.FRS is a standalone tool to aid investigation officers in preventing crime and to identify criminals or suspects by comparing the face of a person found in suspicious circumstances or is suspected of committing an offence.

This data is stored in the central database of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNs) maintained by the Central Government.The police department is empowered to conduct regular checks for preventing suspicious activities to maintain law and order. As part of this, the Mirchowk Police Station conducted checks to prevent violation of Covid lockdown norms issued by the Government of Telangana.

The Mirchowk Police booked 44 e-petty cases on May 5, 2021, but the name of the petitioner did not figure in it and as such the contention of the petitioner is false, the Commissioner said.

The Telangana Police use the FRS tool for identifying terror suspects, habitual offenders, dreaded criminals, missing persons, children and unidentified dead bodies.This system does not have any mechanism for automatically tracing the movements of the public, CV Anand said.