U.P. Police Are Using Social Media Meticulously
U.P. police are trying very hard to change its not-so-good image to smart and humane one with using social media in a very meticulous way. It has not only publicized its good work through twitter but also taking actions on tweets.
PRO to the Director General of U.P.Police, Rahul Shrivastava, told Police World that since January 1st of this year, the Uttar Pradesh Police have registered 350 First Information Reports, after taking cognizance of tweets. He said that 64 policemen have been placed under suspension after getting information about their misdeeds from tweets. The actions were taken against them after getting evidence from tweets. He also informed that 16 errant cops have been transferred to police lines from their previous postings. Sending policemen to lines is also a form of punishment, however, it is considered minor punishment.
Rahul Shrivastava also told that nine police personnel were arrested and sent to jail after getting information and substantiating evidence from Twitter. 82 cops have been facing enquiries after posting of tweets against them. Prima facie, allegations were considered enough to initiate enquiries against them. Moreover, 570 actions of miscellaneous nature have been done against cops after tweets about incidents relating to them.
However, U.P. Police are on Twitter from March 2013, but it has got into action after the new government came into power earlier this year. After assuming power, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had issued directions to the top brass of his force that they should publicize their good work through social media and especially on Twitter. It is believed that increasing impact of social media on the population may have led the government to issue this directive.
Since then, U.P. Police have been using twitter very meticulously. Be it an arrest of accused or a Samaritan job by a cop or any social work was done by the police is getting posted on it. And, it is getting a good response too. A few days back, an SHO of Sonbhadra district taken up the responsibility making a difference in a child’s life, who lost both his legs in a train accident, by taking charge of his education cost and medical treatment. He won praise on the official twitter handle of the UP Police. A picture was also tweeted by PU Police applauding his initiative.
Also, twitter handle of UP Police also uploaded a PDF link to getting well soon tweets for Swiss couple Marie and Jeremy, who were assaulted near Agra by some anti-social elements. It got praise from many sections of the society, including Swiss embassy. The diligence of cops paid rich dividends and a number of followers of their official twitter handle have reached up to more than 268K.
The feelings about UP Police expertise of Twitter are so dominant in the UP government that officers of its other department are taking lessons from it. After the directions of the state’s power minister Shrikant Sharma, the principal secretary of the state’s power ministry, Alok Kumar, sought help from DGP of UP Police to train officers of power department, in order to solve problems of the consumers. Addl. SP Rahul Shrivastava of UP Police provided training of twitter to them in Shakti Bhawan. He says that UP Police are happy to assist other departments/organizations in building positive synergies for governance benefitting people at large. Moreover, every district police have now dedicated team on Twitter, to showcase their good work on daily basis. It is being considered by the senior police officers that it would change the image of the UP Police.
