Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Saturday 5 December 2020

Supreme Surveillance Solution ?

 


 

Context :

SC: CCTVs must in offices of CBI, ED, Police Stations  /  HT – 03 Dec

Extract :

With the aim of preventing custodial torture, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered for installation of CCTV cameras in the offices of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies, in addition to police stations across the country.

Extending the ambit of its 2018 order, the top court maintained that not only police stations but all the other agencies, which have the power to make arrests and interrogate, must also have CCTVs and recording devices installed in their premises. Therefore, the bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman directed the central government to get CCTV cameras with audio-recording facility installed in the offices of CBI, ED, NIA, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and all such agencies.

“As most of these agencies carry out interrogation in their office(s), CCTVs shall be compulsorily installed in all offices where such interrogation and holding of accused takes place in the same manner as it would in a police station,” directed the bench.

In 2018, the court had passed a judgment for bringing all police stations under the surveillance of the CCTV cameras to check human rights abuses. For this purpose, all states were required to constitute independent committees that could study CCTV camera footages and periodically publish reports of its observations.

Further, this judgment asked the Central government to a set up a Central Oversight Body (COB) and provide necessary funds…

Two years on, when the bench sought to evaluate the progress made by the states, it noted severe deficiencies in complying with its judgment across the board.

Besides, the court order made SHO of each police station responsible for upkeep and maintenance of CCTV cameras.

The cameras need to be installed at all entry and exit points, main gate of the police station, all lock-ups, reception area, officials’ rooms, and station hall.

It added that a State Level Oversight Committee,…must also be constituted to make certain the court’s directions are duly complied with…

Similarly, District Level Oversight Committees,…will be set up in all districts to interact with the SHOs for upkeep of CCTVs and review the footage for any human right violation.

The Centre and states have been given six weeks by the court to file their compliance affidavit with details of cameras installed, exact timeline of completing the remaining installations and constitution of oversight committees.

===================================================

Context :

Bombay HC bats for CCTV cameras in police stations, directs cops to maintain daily register  /  06 Dec

Extract :

..Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, ..went a step ahead and directed police stations in the state to maintain a register detailing the daily functioning of the said CCTV cameras to prevent custodial torture.

.. the bench remarked, “This is not the first instance when the concerned police station has informed that CCTV system was not working. Some specific directions are given by this court at this seat and at the principal seat also to see that CCTV systems are installed in every police station and it should cover lockup and other portions of police stations.”

 “Such system controls activities like atrocities against persons who are brought to police station. It is surprising that in many cases submission is made that on that particular day, the CCTV system was not working… This cannot be allowed to happen as the purpose behind installing the CCTV system itself is defeated when such submissions are accepted.”

 “This court wants to see that the registers are maintained in respect of the CCTV system in the concerned police station to ascertain the truthfulness of the submission that CCTV system was not working on that day,”

===================================================

MY TAKE :

Ø  This , seemingly harsh order, was perhaps inevitable given the instances of Police brutalities over the decades ( may be a legacy of the British Raj )


Ø  Although not a perfect solution ( to elimination of violations of human rights ), this will help


Ø  It is not possible to satisfactorily answer ( right now, at least ), following questions raised by Economic Times Editorial ( 04 Dec ) – but one must thank ET for raising the same :


      #  Is ( this surveillance ) sufficient to eliminate torture ?


      #  what is to prevent the police from arranging interrogation rooms outside

          police stations, where to carry out their third-degree practices ?

          

      #  What is the guarantee tat CCTV cameras will not suffer convenient 

          outages or that the recordings would not be damaged, say, by water

          pouring from a leaky roof ?

          

      #   Is electronic surveillance the optimal utilization, from the point of view

           of advancing the cause of  justice, of the enormous sums that would be

           required to install cameras in every room and corridor of every police

           station in the country ?

          

       #   Do we have the bandwidth to back-up the videography recording in the

            cloud ?


Ø  To these , I would like to add the following questions :


#   Is it possible for those members of the District Level Oversight

     Committees ( humans after all,  with all their natural biases ), review 

     the footage for any human right violation ?

    

Consider the following facts :


#   We have a total of some 16,671 police stations spread among 718

     districts ( ave of 23 / district )

#   Each police station may need 20 CCTV cameras , ie., 460  cameras per

     district ( 23 x 20 )

#  Recording for say 12 hours / day, amounts to a CCTV footage of 5520

    hours / day, to be reviewed by the District Committee Members for “ 

    human rights violation “

    

#  From a video / audio, how does a human detect / conclude a “ human

    rights violation “ ?  - which are defined as follows :

   

“ In terms of Section 2 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (hereafter referred to as 'the Act'), "human rights" means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed under the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India.

          {  source : https://nhrc.nic.in/frequently-asked-questions }

 

If there are 5 members in district committee and each member is ( say ) able to spare one hour per day to review CCTV footage , that would amount to a reviewing a mere 5 hours of recording , out of 5520 hours !


No chance of catching any instance of “ human rights violation “ !


And here is a larger question :


“ What spoken words / facial expressions ( captured and reviewed by committee members ), are clear / indisputable proof of violation of life , liberty, equality, dignity ? “


Would all 5 members of the committee agree unanimously that the ( video captured ) facial expression of person being interrogated, displays unmistakable signs of emotions like  FRUSTRATION, FEAR , PAIN etc ? What if there is disagreement ?


Altogether there can be 3590 committee member ( 718 districts x 5 persons )


Can all of them consistently and identically “ decipher human emotions “ ( our clue to violations ) ?


I cannot escape a feeling that “ review “ by humans, will only lead to “ my word against your word “ situation !

 

Is there a NON-HUMAN , technology based method to accurately / consistently / untiringly , decipher those human emotions and conclusively establish that,

 

Ø  Person being interrogated, definitely displayed emotions of  FRUSTRATION - FEAR – PAIN - ANGUISH ?

 

Ø  Police officer interrogating, displayed emotions of ANGER – CONTEMPT – THREAT – HATE – MALICE  ?

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I urge the Supreme Court to consider,


Ø  Integration with those lakhs of CCTV cameras , a ( human independent ) technology-based software which can detect in a VIDEO-RECORDING, the “ human emotions “ listed above and then alert ( by automatically e-mailing that offensive portion of a VIDEO-CLIP ) to Human Rights Commission / District – State level Oversight Committees Members / any other designated persons or agencies , along with full details of :

 

      #   District / Police Station Number

      #    Name – Rank of interrogating Police Officer

     #    Name / Aadhar ID of suspect being interrogated

     #    Date / Time of interrogation

     #    Suspected Offence for which being interrogated

     #    FIR No

In case such a Technology Platform is NOT available from any Indian company, then the Supreme Court may consider the following provider :

===================================================

Ø  https://www.affectiva.com/how/how-it-works/

             Human Perception AI.

 

Our software detects all things human: nuanced emotions, complex cognitive states, behaviors, activities, interactions and objects people use.


Built on deep learning, computer vision, speech science and massive amounts of real-world data, Affectiva’s technology can detect nuanced human emotions, complex cognitive states, activities, interactions and objects people use.

 https://ranaelkaliouby.com/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_el_Kaliouby

===================================================

Ø  CORTICA

This autonomous AI is embedded in next-generation, ultra-scale platforms where understanding images is a critical task


Cortica
, an Israeli company with deep roots in security and AI research, recently formed a partnership in India with Best Group to analyse the terabytes of data streaming from CCTV cameras in public areas.


The companies' combined efforts will provide an array of solutions for combing through the staggering amount of data captured daily through millions of hours of footage shot by drones, surveillance cameras and satellites.


The sheer breath of data surveilled on a given day renders manual examination nearly impossible.


Autonomous AI enables real-time identification of patterns, concepts and situational anomalies to identify potential problems, flag them and improve safety in the process.


( https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prime-ministers-narendra-modi-and-benjamin-netanyahu-welcome-new-age-of-collaboration-for-israel-and-india-300589299.html )

===================================================

This Technology Platform should have following features :

Ø  A Mobile App [ WatchDog ? ], using which anyone can select any given Police Station and watch real-time live video streaming of the CCTV in the interrogation room .


Ø  A portal { www.IndianPoliceStations.gov.in } , where a dashboard displays dynamically, number of viewers ( citizen ) watching, each of the 16,671 police stations . In-charge of a Police Station would get to know this number and get motivated to conduct the interrogation in a humane / polite manner


Ø  An inbuilt “ Language Translation Software “, since ( presumably ), interrogating officer is most likely to be using the language of the person being interrogated. Citizen watching live streaming should be enabled to understand the dialogue taking place 

  

           Related Readings :


            Government announces list of 10 best performing police stations in India

 

            Live Streaming of Court Proceedings

 

            AI come to judgement ? Not for a while !

 

           Who watches the Watchmen ?

 

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqeQByqf_f8 


          Singularity : an Indian Concept ?

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  06 Dec 2020

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