Policing in Modern India

Policing in Modern India: Decolonization, Institutional Transformation and Reform Pathways is a comprehensive interdisciplinary volume examining the evolution, contemporary challenges, and future pathways of policing in India.

Bringing together scholars, police practitioners, forensic experts, legal professionals, criminologists, and policy researchers from India and abroad, the book examines policing within a rapidly changing legal, technological, and social environment.

The volume’s six thematic parts address institutional transformation and community-oriented policing; constitutional safeguards and accountability; digital policing, surveillance, and facial recognition; cybercrime, digital evidence, and forensic investigation; economic and white-collar crime; and professional development and future reform pathways. The chapters bring together academic analysis and practical perspectives on issues including India's evolving criminal law framework, data-driven policing, emerging technologies, cyber-forensic capacity, transnational e-evidence, economic crime, urban policing, public perceptions, and professional development. Comparative contributions from jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam further broaden the scope of the volume and enable readers to engage with common policing challenges across different institutional settings.

The book will be of particular interest to police professionals, policymakers, legal practitioners, criminologists, forensic professionals, researchers, academics, and students working in policing, criminal justice, security studies, law, governance, forensic science, technology, and public policy. Its combination of academic scholarship, professional experience, interdisciplinary perspectives, and international contributions also makes it relevant to readers seeking to understand the development of policing institutions and contemporary law-enforcement challenges in India and beyond.