16 September,2015 08:33 AM IST | | Saurabh Vaktania
A specially trained team of police officials will post regular updates on the pages; cops feel an official social media presence will help them in stopping rumour mongering
In a new initiative, the Mumbai police will soon make their presence felt on social media. A specially trained team of cops will be seen posting updates on Twitter and Facebook that will mainly revolve around happenings in the city. They will also post on their awareness initiatives, among other things.
Confirming the development, DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni said, "We will launch a Twitter and Facebook page soon. A dedicated team will post updates 24/7 on both of these platforms. Mumbaikars can soon expect regular updates from the official social media accounts of the Mumbai Police"
A police officer on the condition of anonymity said, "A team of seven police officials have already been trained for using social media. The Facebook page is ready and the Twitter page will possibly be operated under the @mumbaipolice handle.
An official account is of importance to the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister who are on social media and to most Mumbaikars who are tech savvy. Social media has a large target audience and things spread quite rapidly. Which is why, we are planning to post information regarding several campaigns and awareness initiatives."
Speaking about their decision to launch an official page, a police officer said, "It was very important for Mumbai Police to come on social media. Rumor mongering in certain incidents has badly affected the city in the past. We hope to quell the same effectively through social media."
The officer also added that the Chief Minister will inaugurate both the pages. The police also aim to post different kinds of content on their pages, the officer added, "Audio and video clips from top cops and messages from them will be posted as well.
These will mainly be related to enhancing awareness, educating the youth regarding fraudsters, drug peddlers, chain snatchers, etc. We will also post about traffic diversions." Another police officer said, "It will be interesting to see how effectively the police handles and sustains its social media presence.
Launching an official page was important since Twitter and Facebook had several fake pages operating under our name."
