Regulating AI-Based Policing in India: Lessons from the EU AI Act for Surveillance, Accountability, and Investigative Practices

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-547-8_7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Policing; Surveillance; Regulation; Indian Criminal Law; EU AI Act

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led technologies for surveillance are advancing criminal law practices, as Indian law enforcement rapidly deploys these tools, including facial recognition systems, drone-based monitoring, automated number plate recognition, policing software, and AI-enabled cyber forensics. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), the Indian criminal law, talks about digital evidence. India, however, lacks a dedicated regulatory regime that can govern the risks and accountability issues of the AI-based surveillance. Whereas the AI Act, 2024 of the European Union, represents the world’s first legislation governing artificial intelligence, which is complete as it provides a risk-based model that is relevant, most importantly, for law enforcement bodies. Through this paper, the authors undertake a comparative analysis of India’s growing AI-based surveillance ecosystem vis-à-vis the EU AI Act. This study addresses that without a framework for regulatory AI tools, India risks being opaque, unverified, and discriminatory in its justice systems. This paper proposes a structured policy reform, like classifying AI policing tools based on risks, a specialized body for AI in the policing ecosystem, and drafting rules governing the deployment and review of AI surveillance tools.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Simarjeet Singh Satia
AU  - Ekta Gupta
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/05
TI  - Regulating AI-Based Policing in India: Lessons from the EU AI Act for Surveillance, Accountability, and Investigative Practices
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Socio Legal Intricacies of Artificial Intelligence (ICSLIAI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 47
EP  - 54
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-547-8_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-547-8_7
ID  - Satia2026
ER  -