Delhi Police have deployed two surveillance vehicles, a Mobile Command and Control Vehicle and a camera van named Ikshana, outside Kerala House near the Jantar Mantar protest site. The vehicles stream live CCTV footage processed by facial recognition software, which converts faces in the crowd into numerical templates to compare them against a police database of criminals. An anonymous senior police official stated that the live technology is being used on protesters specifically to identify individuals on their criminal database. Staffed by trained operators, the Ikshana van carries eight fixed cameras providing full 360-degree coverage and was previously used at the location during protests in May 2023. The deployment of the live AI surveillance system has raised privacy and regulatory concerns alongside legal questions.

Background: Surveillance and Smart Cities

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