COIMBATORE: Police stations in Coimbatore city have been instructed to appoint an officer to monitor the social media accounts to track anti-social activities of rowdies in their respective jurisdiction. Sources said that in recent cases booked against the rowdies and ganja peddlers, police noticed most of the anti-social activities have become dependent on social media platforms.
“Nowadays, anti-social elements don’t communicate on mobile phones and don’t meet in person. Instead, they use social media platforms, especially WhatsApp and Instagram, to exchange information as it protects them from police surveillance.
Moreover, technical facilities such as personal accounts, voice call and video call options are in their favour. The police also need knowledge of these technologies and they should use it to track the miscreants,” said a senior police officer. Recently, police identified that rowdy gangs involved in ganja sale were active on Instagram.
“They run the contraband sale as a network and most of them are college students. It was revealed that there was an exchange of information related to the sale of ganja, some people even posted videos with weapons and engaged in gang wars through social media,” the officer said. “They have been doing this for years on social media platforms, but it came to the attention of the police only a few months ago.
Following this, the social media pages of the suspects are being actively monitored and cases are being registered. However, it is necessary to monitor social media platforms in all police stations, considering it as a source of information,” he said. According to the instructions, at least one officer from each station should follow the social media accounts of the suspects to monitor them.
“There are 15 police stations in the city that fall under two divisions. Two dedicated social media teams have been already working to monitor the accounts and the cyber crime police are handling the investigations. Besides, we are concentrating on monitoring the social media platforms from station level. It has been orally instructed to monitor the social media and subsequently, we are planning to train all personnel for handling the platforms,” the officer said.