Social media is truly emerging as a key component of modern policing, even in States like Uttar Pradesh, known for its poor law and order situation.
The State police has been asked to increase its presence and activity on social media in a bid to directly connect with common people. UP is India’s most populous State with over 200 million inhabitants and police is overburdened with the task of monitoring activities and tracking criminals.
In a circular issued to all senior officers in the State, UP Director General of Police Javeed Ahmed has instructed them to officially take to Twitter as an effective redressal mechanism of public grievances.
The six-point directive instructs all top officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police, Senior Superintendent of Police, Deputy Inspector General and Inspector General, to maintain a Twitter account. The officers must maintain a log of the activity in their area on their Twitter handles. The State police would also be serviced with a permanent social media cell, where officials would work in two shifts from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Mr. Ahmed also instructed his senior officers to configure their Twitter accounts on their CUG (official) phone numbers so that they can ensure necessary and swift action to public complaints.
All officers and officials of the police department will soon also receive a training in the use of Twitter at the DGP’s headquarters in Lucknow.
“Social media is an empowered medium of directly communicating with the people and it has become necessary for police to adopt it,” a police spokesperson said, quoting Mr. Ahmed, after he reviewed all Twitter handles of UP police.
Apart from the directives to the officers, Mr. Ahmed has also asked his forces to maintain Twitter accounts at every district level — these accounts would be directly named after the district, for instance, Varanasi police. Profile pictures and bio data should be customised for maintain uniformity.
Senior officers would also be required to reveal their rank and location as identifying markers on Twitter.
The UP police may often draw a lot of flak for its on ground ineffectiveness and negligence but its official Twitter handle has been appreciated for its alertness and quick response. The handle has more than 40,000 followers. It’s counterpart in Delhi has over 60,000.
