The Punjab Police on Monday launched its online campaign in a bid to counter the growing threat of gangsters and criminals in the state. The online campaign was formally launched by the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh as the state police went live on social media with a YouTube channel, Twitter account and a Facebook page, in the presence of Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora and other senior officers.
The DGP has got a separate Twitter account. Arora said that the police has taken to the social media to aggressively counter the growing threat of gangsters and criminals.
"The social media campaign of the police will go a long way in bridging the gap between the police and the citizens, and also at tackling the abuse of social media by gangsters and criminals seeking to spread terror in the state," the Chief Minister said.
He called upon the police to use social media in a productive manner to connect with various sections of society, particularly the youth, in order to provide transparent, responsive and effective policing. The move comes in wake of the reports of several gangsters, both inside and outside prisons, using social media to threaten police, intimidate people and self-promotion of their criminal acts. Following the revelation made during the investigations carried out in the targeted killings, the cops had concluded that attempts were being made to radicalise the Punjab youth by using the social media by the pro-Khalistan forces that were operating from foreign lands
"Social media can be of immense help in effectively handling law and order situations, prevention and detection of crimes, and other aspects of policing," the Chief Minister said.
With this, the Facebook page of Punjab Police (www.facebook.com/PunjabPoliceIndia), Twitter account of Punjab Police (www.twitter.com/PunjabPolice), Twitter account of DGP and youtube channel of Punjab Police have gone live.