India, Oct. 9 -- In a fast-changing world, police performance will be judged not by the number of tech-based applications launched, but by the number of crimes that do not take place

In the 1990s, when I first walked into a police station as a trainee IPS officer, policing was largely a race to catch up with crime. The tools were modest: a handwritten 'Rojnamcha', a temperamental black rotary-dial telephone, and the institutional memory of the MHC and beat constable. Success was measured by how quickly the police reached the scene, arrested the accused and restored order.

Three decades later, that paradigm is changing fundamentally. Technology, data and intelligence are enabling the police to move from reacting to crime to anticipating ...