UP cops find ally in Twitter

For the beleaguered Uttar Pradesh Police, often at the receiving end of public criticism for its tardy responses and inept handling of cases, micro-blogging site Twitter is emerging a big-ticket PR booster - it already has over 54,000 followers, and the number is growing by the day. Thanks to Twitter, the largest police force in the world has not only been able to work out many crimes and prevent others from taking place, but has also earned bouquets for its prompt intervention.

Almost three weeks after it launched the Twitter Seva grievance redressal service, a first by any state police force in the country, the bulk of the problems posted have been disposed off and the remaining ones are in process. Of the over 10,000 tweets that were received on the @Uppolice Twitter handle, around 70 percent were found to have been "actionable" and were sorted out within hours, a police officer told this correspondent.

The Twitter handle is being monitored 24x7 by a team of well-trained police personnel at the DGP HQ, which has since become the "repository of all tweets".
Other than the prompt action that is being taken on the complaints of the people, the Twitter Seva seems to have brought out the humane face of the men in khakhi, something which many valiant efforts in the past had failed to achieve.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) to the DGP UP, Rahul Srivastav, who also heads the nodal team overseeing Twitter Seva, says the service has "become a great game changer". Explaining how the goodwill of the police was shoring up with prompt follow-up on the tweets that can be acted upon, Srivastav said most pertained to non-registration of FIRs, slow progress in investigations, lack of patrolling in localities, police misbehaviour and traffic gridlocks. In one case, an officer said, a woman quietly recorded the misbehaviour of a police SHO on her cell phone and posted it on the micro-blogging site.

The SHO in Gorakhpur was suspended within minutes and similar action was taken in Faizabad when a sub-inspector misbehaved with a complainant. An ADG-rank officer pointed out that in the run-up to the service being launched, there was a "mouthful of cynicism" when many on the force said the "establishment was unleashing a Frankenstein" which will put more pressure on, and bring under scrutiny, the entire system.

This, they feared, would render a further body-blow to the police, "largely owing to its internal shortcomings like low staff, poor weaponry and communication systems". "It's a great feeling to not only be part of such an effective system but the feeling of being part of a system that is delivering succour at lightning speed," Pandey said. The sentiment was endorsed by Sanjay Singhal, an assistant to the DGP who oversees the whole system.

"The service has opened new vistas for people to reach out to us and has given us a tool to react in time and respond with alacrity," Singhal said. And so, as the micro-blogging service is emerging as a buddy for the oft-harangued UP Police, even the countryside is feeling the tremors of change. A user from Kanpur rural, who got his complaint resolved in no time, pointed out that when he went to the concerned policeman, the first thing he told him was: "Tweet na kar dena yaar (For heaven's sake, do not Tweet)."

By Mohit Dubey