Haryana Police is expanding its use of facial recognition technology to identify and track criminals. The force has already uploaded photographs of 29,416 active criminals to its Facial Recognition System (FRS). The move is part of a statewide exercise to build and update a digital database of active criminals.
Police have physically verified 47,124 criminals across the state till October 29. Eleven districts have completed 100 per cent verification of their active criminal records.
Haryana Facial Recognition System: How the Database Drive Works
The exercise has two parts. First, police teams physically verify active criminals on the ground. Second, the verified records and photographs are uploaded to the facial recognition system so the force can identify and track them digitally.
Chairing a review meeting at the Police Headquarters in Panchkula on Thursday, DGP Ajay Singhal directed districts that have completed the verification exercise to upload details and photographs of proclaimed offenders (POs), bail jumpers and most-wanted criminals to the system. He asked the officers concerned to push the work forward.
Why Haryana Police Is Betting on Facial Recognition
The stated purpose is clear: build a working digital database of active criminals and use facial recognition to track them. Districts that have finished verification are now being told to move to the upload stage, which suggests the department wants the system populated with the most serious categories first — proclaimed offenders, bail jumpers and most-wanted criminals.
The numbers show the scale of the effort so far:
- 29,416 photographs of active criminals uploaded to the Facial Recognition System
- 47,124 active criminals physically verified across the state till October 29
- 11 districts with 100 per cent verification of active criminal records
The gap between verified records and uploaded photos is worth noting. More criminals have been verified on the ground than have been uploaded to the system, which is why the DGP's direction focuses on getting completed districts to finish the upload work.
Our Take: A Useful Tool That Needs Guardrails
In our view, this is a practical step for a state police force. A verified, photo-linked database of active criminals gives investigators a faster way to identify suspects, and the physical verification stage adds a layer of accuracy that a purely digital list would lack. The fact that 11 districts have completed full verification shows the exercise is moving, not just being announced.
To put it plainly, the real test is not how many photos are uploaded — it is whether the system is accurate and whether its use is properly supervised. Facial recognition can misidentify people, and a database of "active criminals" must be kept current so that people who are no longer on the list are not flagged. Readers should watch for two things: whether the remaining districts complete their uploads, and whether the department shares clear rules on how matches are confirmed before any action is taken.
For now, the direction is set. Haryana Police has the photos, the verification data and a clear instruction from the top to use the system. The next phase — actual tracking through facial recognition — is where the results will show.