Uttar Pradesh Police Twitter service sets global example

The world’s largest police force, the UP Police Twitter service, has achieved a rare distinction. It is being presented as the global success story of any government department having online public connect and addressing grievances through social media platform.

The UP police media cell in charge, additional superintendent of police (ASP), Rahul Srivastava was invited by Twitter India to a conference at Delhi on Thursday, to narrate how a colonial police force was transformed into the digital era force.

Talking to HT on phone, the ASP said he came to know about the UP Police’s achievement when Twitter India chief Taranjeet Singh mentioned it during the conference on Thursday. He said Twitter India had presented UP Police Twitter service as the global success story at its organisational meeting in US. It was also being presented at other platforms about use of social media in making social changes.

Srivastava said the Twitter handle of UP Police was directly handing online complaints and most of the grievances were addressed within 24 hours of uploading.

He said at the conference, he shared the key components of UP Police ‘Twitter Sewa’ related to sensitisation of police officers and personnel at district level, creating mandatory Twitter handle of all districts’ police and formation of a proper team to handle and train personnel about its use..

“Although UP Police twitter handle is active since March 2016, the ‘Twitter Sewa’ was officially launched in on September 8, 2016. A special team of eight policemen was constituted and they were trained to handle public grievances coming through tweets. ‘Twitter Sewa’ was recognised as a separate unit of the UP Police,” said Srivastava.

He said nearly 3 lakh tweets were received at UP Police Twitter handle since March 2016 and almost 1.15 tweets related to public grievances were forwarded for proper redressal. “Since the official launch of ‘Twitter Sewa’, nearly 2 lakh tweets were received and action was taken on 85,957 complaints and information received,” he said.

The ASP said nearly 1091 tweets related to serious issues like corruption by police personnel, crime incidents and non-registration of FIRs were received at UP Police Twitter handle since January this year. “FIRs were registered in 350 incidents, around nine FIRs were registered against police personnel after finding them involved in corrupt practice, 64 policemen were suspended, departmental inquiries were set up against 82 cops and 16 were sent to police lines,” he told HT.

Srivastava also participated in the panel discussion on Twitter influence in bringing about social changes. He said he shared his experience about how the old colonial image of the UP Police was replaced with a smart one, having huge direct connectivity with the public.

Earlier, the UP Police Twitter service received the special jury award for providing best Twitter services to directly address people’s grievances.