"CCTV cameras can help catch culprits but cannot by themselves prevent crime." In light of recent Supreme Court observations, examine how technology-driven policing for women's safety in Indian cities can be made more effective.

In October 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran heard a suo motu case on sexual assaults against women and minors in Delhi-NCR. The Bench observed that cameras help catch culprits but do not prevent crime, and it directed the Delhi Police to set up 24-hour monitoring cells [1]. Technology prevents crime only when people watch it, respond to it and are held accountable for it.

Why CCTV alone falls short

• Detection, not prevention: If no one watches the feeds, footage is used only after the crime has happened [1].
• Money not spent: ₹7,436 crore was set aside under the Nirbhaya Fund for 32 projects, but only ₹2,647 crore was released (Standing Committee, 2020) [3].
• No funding excuse in Delhi: Other cities share Safe City costs with the Union in a 60:40 ratio, but Delhi's project is fully Union-funded [5]. Weak monitoring there is therefore a failure of execution.
• Problems cameras cannot fix: Harassment near colleges and the illegal eateries the court named need patrols and licensing action, not more cameras [1].

Making it effective

• Staffed 24×7 command centres: Link them to Safe City patrol vans fitted with live-feed dashboards [2], and measure how quickly patrols arrive after an alert.
• Analytics aimed at hot-spots: Use ANPR, facial-recognition analytics and person tracking on mapped crime hot-spots such as college gates [2][1]. No team of people can watch lakhs of feeds.
• Follow-through after a crime: ITSSO tracks rape investigations in real time against a two-month deadline [4].
• Public transparency: Publish city-wise data from the geo-tagged Safe City Implementation Monitoring portal [4].
• Oversight: Set up the Cabinet Secretary-chaired committee the Standing Committee recommended for Nirbhaya Fund projects [3].
• Privacy safeguards: Under Puttaswamy (2017), surveillance must be backed by law, necessary and proportionate [6]. Data retention needs clear rules.

Camera → Live watch → Alert → Patrol response → ITSSO tracking → Public audit

Flowchart: how a camera network becomes a prevention system

Technology is useful for women's safety only when it is linked to trained staff, quick response and clear accountability. The Court's direction should become a nationwide standard backed by measurable targets and privacy safeguards. Safe public spaces are part of the dignity guaranteed by Article 21, and they serve SDG target 11.7.