NEW DELHI: With an eye on making law enforcement agencies across the country Artificial Intelligence (AI) equipped, the Centre has asked the states to form special task forces (STF) in their respective police organisations, as the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is in the process of framing a training module for personnel involved in crime detection, prevention and investigation, official sources said.
According to the sources, the directions were given during a high-level meeting with senior officials with the aim of integrating AI into India’s policing architecture, as the Centre has set an ambitious target of training more than half of the serving police personnel in each of the states and Union Territories (UTs) in AI applications by 2028.
A senior official in the government said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the ministry concerned and department to ensure that India’s policing should be integrated with AI as early as possible.
According to the official, the directions were “very clear”, as it was said that adoption of AI in policing should not be “optional” but “mandatory”, as this would go a long way in dealing with issues of internal security and prevention of modern-day crimes.
The dedicated AI task forces in each state will be responsible for capacity building and ensuring smooth implementation of AI systems across various functions, which police organisations undertake.
According to sources, the MHA has been working on a comprehensive AI model for law enforcement agencies to be adopted by them after training their personnel, which would be put to application in the areas of intelligence gathering, real-time threat detection and speeding up analysis of crime patterns.
They said that the work is in progress with a vision of incorporating automated tagging systems and multi-source data fusion, which will enable the police personnel to get “high-speed data-powered information”.
At the core of the entire plan to embed AI in policing in the country is to integrate it with the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) and facilitate data-driven justice delivery and enhanced outcomes. NATGRID, which aggregates data from multiple agencies, is expected to become significantly more powerful when combined with AI-driven analytics, the sources said.
Notably, the MHA has been asked to participate in the upcoming AI Impact Summit, which is going to be held during February 16-20, 2026, and use the opportunity for knowledge exchange.
The summit will feature dedicated sessions where representatives from state and UT police forces will interact with global AI experts to explore technology-driven solutions for policing challenges.