Reliance on FRTs in India is premature. This policy brief highlights this whilst acknowledging FRTs' use cases—in aiding the police's preventive and investigative functions, in potentially reducing 'third-degree methods', and improving police's functional autonomy. FRT deployment creates risk and has implications in several areas: accuracy errors, bias, and discriminatory and real-time surveillance. These technologies should therefore be implemented in a modular manner with fair, transparent, and reasonable operational safeguards.