Kerala police announced that they will receive training in AI and data analytics with help from the Digital University of Kerala, India’s first on-campus digital university. The programme, called ‘Capacity Building in Responsible Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics’, has been specially created for the police department. It was launched at the DUK campus in Pallippuram and will comprise 150 hours of classes conducted by experts and researchers. The first batch of classes will have 15 chosen police officers.
The programme aims to transform policing and eventually cut down the workload on policemen and also build tools that will help them serve the public more effectively. P Prakash, the Inspector General of Police (South Zone), inaugurated the programme stating that the department is also working on iCoPS, new software for the purpose of police tracking for its Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & System (CCTNS).
Snehil Kumar Singh, the director of the Kerala IT Mission, stated that while AI may sound futuristic and far away, the reality was that its application is currently present everywhere. The vice-chancellor of DUK, Saji Gopinath, said the programme was a step up towards e-Governance.
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“The entire e-governance initiative was about introducing different applications, hardware and products so that the governance improves in general. Now it is time we start onboarding people who have a certain idea in data analytics and AI so that the governance itself improves,” Singh added.
AI in policing
Indian law enforcement has recently started using a larger number of AI-powered services. Last week, IIT-Kanpur’s Artificial Intelligence and Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (AIIDE) said it was developing an AI-powered search engine that would help the police with crime mapping and predictive policing.
In February, the Telangana police chief said that they were using AI surveillance to identify Maoists following tension at the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border. Research has also found that India’s facial recognition market base will balloon to USD 4.3 billion by 2024 due to an influx in surveillance startups that are tying up with the police.
