Despite the state police departments ramping up efforts to curb digital crimes and use technology to nab criminals, a Moneycontrol analysis of data shows that they remain highly underequipped.
There was just one computer/laptop for 11 state police personnel in the country, with some large states having just one system for 30 or more personnel in 2022.
Moneycontrol reported on August 6 that Karnataka Police planned to deploy artificial intelligence for fund trail analysis and dark web monitoring to curb cyber fraud and economic offences.
While Karnataka may be one of the better equipped states to tackle such concerns given its ratio of police personnel to computers was higher at 8, a similar feat would be much more difficult for Bihar which had 42 police personnel per device or Uttar Pradesh where the ratio was 31 to one system, as per latest available data of 2022.
But that leads to the question whether the resources or strength of a police force was also a factor in the police-to-computer ratio.
Madhya Pradesh, which had more personnel than Bihar, had one of the best ratios across the country with four personnel per computer/laptop.
Not every police personnel may require a computer either, but even if we assume that a computer was necessary for any person above assistant sub-inspector level there was a shortfall with 172,168 computers and 18,741 laptops covering 306,726 senior personnel.
In terms of laptops, the ratio was much worse with one laptop available for every 114 personnel or 16 for every officer above the assistant sub-inspector level.
Contrast this with the UK, where a Moneycontrol analysis of data from the UK government website and the University of Leeds study shows there was one laptop for every four police personnel in 2017.
The ratio in the UK improved from 114 personnel per laptop in 2006.
Improving ratios
Indian states are also making gains in computer/laptop additions. The number of devices rose 160 percent to 18,242 for West Bengal in 2022 from 7,028 before the pandemic in 2019.
In Delhi the number of devices doubled during this period, whereas it rose 63 percent for Madhya Pradesh and 61 percent for Rajasthan.
Karnataka had nine fewer devices in 2022 compared with 2019, whereas Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu could not even add 10 percent more devices.
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