In continuation of its whole hearted endorsement of social media tools for policing activities the Bangalore city police are using the social media tool Whatsapp to improve the police beat system in the in order to prevent crime as well as to get tip-offs on anti-social elements.
Every police inspector in Bangalore has now been asked to create jurisdictional Whatsapp groups featuring key citizens, all policemen from the local police station, and the inspector in charge of the local police station.
The new initiative has taken a cue from a similar initiative launched by the traffic police in Bangalore.
In the first stage of the introduction of Whatsapp for the police beat system police inspectors from four divisions – Central, South, North and West, will create Whatsapp groups.
The group will consist of the police inspector, his subordinates (including patrol policemen) and a few select members from the local population, the Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Alok Kumar said.
“The locals in the group must be clean hands with no criminal background. The public members can report any suspicious activity in the group. It will help us prevent crime,” Alok Kumar said.
The jurisdictional police inspector will use his official mobile to create the Whatsapp group and will be the administrator for the group, he said. The Whatsapp group is intended only to make the beat system more effective, the senior police officer said.