NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has been using social media to spread awareness about crime and fake news. When a Twitter account user asked the police whether one can play cricket during Covid-19 curfew, the Delhi Police’s official Twitter account went all hilarious with memes saying, “That’s a ‘Silly Point’ sir or it is a time for an ‘extra cover’.
The Delhi Police has been on a roll in making memes using Bollywood quotes, video games graphics, and podcasts to spread the message about false news, crimes etc to the public. “In current times, just sharing information will not catch eyes of the public. Hence, we use latest social media trends to spread information. We need to use our intellect for such creative posts.” said the police official.
He added that the team organises a brainstorming session and then the ideas are discussed before posting it online. He gave an example where they spread information regarding ill effect of “Drunk and Driving” through a graph. Common slangs were used such as ‘4 baj gaye lekin party abhi baki hai’, ‘ Murthal chale’ and ‘aaj gadi tera bhai chalega’.
Recently, the Delhi Police organised an ‘Ask me Anything’ live Twitter session on online stalking, where DCP south Benito Marry Jaiker and DCP (PRO) Suman Nalwa answered the questions relating to cyberstalking. Additionally, the social media unit of the Delhi Police produces podcasts on a variety of legal topics. A senior police official said that the team also responded to the public’s concerns, particularly those of women. “Once a woman posts a query tagging us on Twitter, we promptly respond to it and resolve it.”
He claimed that their reach on social media has increased after adopting such techniques. Debunking fake news and sharing all the updates regarding Delhi Police functionaries is also one of the main tasks of the social media cell. Nalwa talking about the importance of the cell said, “Social media is an important tool to connect with people, especially youngsters. It is imperative that we use this medium to reach out and put our voice across and we have found that the two-way communication this established connects us to a large section of society.” In a move to spread information faster, Delhi’s police chief Rakesh Asthana established the social media cell in May 2022. The team consists of people from all age groups.