Telangana police to mark 2018 as 'year of technology'; all police stations to have social media accounts

Hyderabad: All police stations in Telangana will have social media accounts in the New Year for communicating with people on a daily basis, a top official said on Saturday. “All police stations will maintain a Facebook page and a Twitter handle to keep communicating with the community and reporting the activities to the respective community on a daily basis,” state Director General of Police M Mahender Reddy said. “We are declaring 2018 as the year of technology and citizen-friendly initiatives for the Telangana police. That means, all police wings in Telangana will implement technology and citizen-friendly initiatives in the coming year in a planned way and in a mission-mode,” he told reporters in Hyderabad. The initiatives would be taken to the people and partnerships will be built with them, the top cop added. [caption id=“attachment_3846121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] He released a document, ‘Annual Plan-2018’, on what the police is going to do in the next year. As per the plan, the community CCTV project will be extended to all urban centres and a social media lab would be set up in all the districts based on a feasibility study. At present, preventive action is initiated to ensure law and order in Hyderabad by monitoring social media, Reddy said. According to the DGP, a mini command and control centre would be set up in each of the district police headquarters and commissionerates. The safety and security of women would continue to be a top priority and the ‘SHE Teams’ (for women safety) would be equipped with modern evidence gathering equipment, Reddy said. As per the plan, market intelligence unit too will be set up in all the districts to prevent white collar offences and to save the gullible citizens from getting cheated. Cybercrime police stations will be established in all districts, the DGP said, adding feedback would be taken from citizens on response from police during their interaction. “Overall percentage increase in crime is about 12.5 percent (in the last one year). Murder for gain, murder, counterfeit currency, criminal breach of trust, such cases have come down. But, crime increased in other heads,” he said. The number of crimes reported is not the barometer for the safety and security of people, he emphasised. “Number of crimes reported is not the barometer for the safety and security. It is about the control on the organised crime and criminal gangs, those who impact on the public safety and security,” Reddy said. To a query, he said the state police has been successful in dealing with communal issues as it worked with local people and saw to it that small issues do not grow bigger. Asked about the status of youth who had reportedly gone to join IS in the past, Reddy said the police could bring a lot of change by speaking to concerned persons and their family members. “It is natural that youth is attracted to any new thing in the society. IS-related thing, it peaked once; We could bring lot of transformation in Hyderabad city and related areas, identifying them, (by holding) lot of counselling sessions, completely monitoring social media, speaking to parents, kith and kin, teachers and the person, raising their awareness whenever someone is attracting to it. “There was none directly who had gone out from our country in the past. We are trying to know locations of those who had gone to these countries from gulf countries after going there for jobs,” informed the DGP.