Now, police take troll route to spread awareness

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The official Facebook page of Kerala Police, which used to post mundane stuff regarding initiatives of the police, on Monday had something different to show a troll meme featuring actors Salim Kumar and Innocent.

The troll, which took a direct dig at a recent verdict by the state high court that the department does not have provisions to charge motorists, who use mobile phones while driving, featured a motorist (Salim Kumar) using a phone while riding his two-wheeler, simultaneously thinking that the high court verdict was a relief and Innocent, portrayed as Yama, waiting eagerly for him.

The post seem to have instantly struck a chord with the followers as it was copiously shared and likes and comments poured in. The page, which has a strength of around 3.80 lakh followers, used to receive around 300-350 likes on an average. But the latest post received over 1,600 likes and nearly 500 shares within a couple of hours of being posted.

According to Thiruvananthapuram range I G Manoj Abraham, who also supervises the cyber activities of the department such as Cyberdome, innovative changes were brought to the page by the newly-formed social media cell of the police, who took over as the new administrators of the page. The cell comprises six police personnel, who were selected following tests to evaluate their aptitude in using social media tools.

"Social media is a wonderful platform and till now we have been using it to post normal stuff which generated poor response. They were like wall posters, which people seldom took seriously," the IG said, adding that their counterparts in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai had already succeeded in winning the hearts of people, especially young ones, through their posts laced with pop culture references and tongue-in-cheek comebacks even to celebrities, who tend to mock the rules.

A member of the social media cell, who did not wished to be named, said that they were sceptical on the response of the followers.

"As the pages of the department and of our officers were a platform for people to vent their frustration and complaints against the department. Surprisingly, that didn't happen with the latest post," he said.

As a matter of fact, all those who commented seemed to have understood the essence of the post and their discussions were restricted to the content of the meme alone.

He also added that the intention of the post was not to mock the court order but to tell people it was still dangerous to use phone while driving.