The protests in Delhi this July and earlier this month sparked a raft of allegations against police and paramilitary personnel — from not wearing name tags to surveillance using facial recognition technology, using disproportionate force for crowd control, and indiscriminate detentions. The Opposition and protestors blamed the government for many of these incidents. The police defended themselves and said they were dealing with swarms of people, many of whom were trying to instigate violence. A series of studies on policing in India shows that some of these can also be attributed to lack of training in crowd control and beliefs within some members of the police that justify the use of force. A series of baseline surveys since 2018 — whose results are published in Status of Policing in India Reports (SPIR) — conducted by non-governmental organisations Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Common Cause with the philanthropy of Tata Trusts and Lal Family Foundation provide useful data on this count.
