"The fault, dear Brutus..."

On an online group of professionals interested in applying technology to the problems of policing, there was a post about the research at Stanford University about improving ballistic analysis through small, but significant process changes, and asking if someone will help Indian police likewise.

It took me back to 2006-07, when I was part of a TIFAC committee headed by the redoubtable Fali Nariman, set up to evaluate pilot project ideas for application of technology to judicial processes. A proposal to create a database of markings on bullets and cartridges was brought before the committee by one of the central forensic labs. The committee had to turn it down, as its remit, being under Ministry of Science and Technology, was only testing of new technologies and not creation of infrastructure, which should have been the mission of the parent ministry - Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in this case. Alas, there was no taker for the idea in MHA.

More than a decade later, nothing much has changed and we still pine for the infrastructure which the developed countries put in place last century! I recently saw J Edgar, a movie on the life of the first Director - who headed the FBI for an astonishing 48 years (1924-1972) - which showed the introduction of scientific techniques and facilities, while solving the case of the abduction of Charles Lindbergh's son. Perceptive police officers are raising the issue of increasing difficulties (?https://pradnyanblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/new-needs-of-effective-policing/), flagging the problem of crimes cutting across state boundaries. However, this seldom generates an institutional response, such as creation of a national database of missing persons (DNA profiled for better accuracy) and use of facial recognition to match the images. ?

The reasons for this pathetic scenario go deep. The concerned policy makers, mostly from the generalist civil service have no ownership of the problem, being well-rounded stones who have never gathered any moss. The police leadership (comprising of IPS officers) is happily occupied in operational management, and, having been shorn of its initiative and financial/administrative authority, has stopped thinking big long ago. With these debilitating factors, we are condemned to make do with a primitive professional environment, and can only read such articles from Stanford or Harvard, with a sense of wistful curiosity.