The Assam Police are driving home a serious message to potential law-breakers with a bit of wit via social media.
Sample this: Sharing rumours/hate messages online can enable you for a date with us in nearest police station this weekend.
And this: Mobs may not follow the law, but the law will follow them. If you hit, the law won’t miss.
These messages through Twitter and Facebook – the force has just opened its Instagram account – are part of the Assam Police’s ‘Think’ campaign in three hashtag segments -- #ThinkBeforeYouPost, #ThinkBeforeYouHit and #ThinkBeforeYouStalk.
In about a month after the launch of this campaign, the Assam Police Facebook page and Twitter handle have together garnered 17.25 lakh followers and counting. Among the fans and re-tweeters are Bollywood stars such as Ajay Devgn, whose screen cop avatar is Singham.
“The Chief Minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) had some time ago sought better policing through active interaction between the police and the public. The trigger for the social media campaign was the lynching of Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das,” Harmeet Singh, Additional Director General of Police (modernisation-logistics) told The Hindu.
The State police’s engagement with smartphone and internet users began with two WhatsApp numbers soon after a mob in central Assam’s Karbi Along lynched Abhijeet and Nilotpal on May 31. The force received a deluge of information on the two numbers, leading to the arrest of 40 people within 48 hours.
It wasn’t until end-June that ‘Nagarik Mitra’ (citizen’s friend), the State police’s Smart Social Media Centre headed by Mr. Singh, decided to be witty with its campaign.