NEW DELHI: Delhi Police, which comes under stringent criticism at times, is going for an image makeover by utilising social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to fight its “negative” image and respond to public queries.
The move comes at a time when the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi headed by Arvind Kejriwal has intensified its verbal attack on the police.
Delhi Police, which is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, will set up a specialised unit that will manage its image makeover. The task has been assigned to Special Commissioner of Police Taj Hassan.
Police in each of the 11 districts have been told to constitute a social media cell to handle Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. “Every district should maintain their respective Facebook account,” said a police officer who is part of the team. “They have to share all positive stories of the police on their social media accounts and counter negativity.” Each district across the city is headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Hassan has given various assignments to Joint Commissioners of Police (Crime) Ravindra Kumar Yadav and Garima Bhatnagar. The team comprises Deputy Commissioners R K Jha, Versha Sharma and Rajan Bhagat along with Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahesh Batra.
Hassan has proposed a dynamic interface for the 11 districts and one for railway police on the Delhi Police website. “Through this interface, information of each district and unit would be uploaded on these dynamic pages to build the image of Delhi Police,” he said.
For a makeover of Delhi Traffic Police, eight constables have been deployed round the clock under an Inspector and a Sub-Inspector to forward queries and complaints to traffic inspectors in real time and post replies on social media. The Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Special Police Unit for Women and Children has been asked to post updates of all activities and photos on Facebook as its account wasn’t interactive and replies weren’t posted properly. “There was no follow-up mechanism,” said an officer.
This year, 1,49,587 incidents of crime have been registered by Delhi Police.