Chennai: In yet another step towards preventing crime, the city police are to network with citizens over WhatsApp by creating official groups.
The different groups will be used as a primary platform for crime prevention besides addressing the grievances of the people and will also used for reporting crimes.
Sources said a group will have the office bearers of residents' welfare associations besides jurisdictional ACP, inspectors- L&O, and crime wings, beat officers, and patrol officers. The DCP of the particular police district will also be a member of that group. The group will be monitored round the clock and the cops concerned would react to the alerts/assists as and when posted.
The action taken will also be posted in the same group and the senior officers present in the group will ensure the accountability of their subordinates on a case by case basis. The feedback from the public will be instant and the same will be used to modify the methods employed by cops in different scenarios.
The residents' welfare associations, which have not shared their details with the local police station, were advised to get in touch with the cops in the police station to get themselves included in the Whatsapp groups.
The idea was pitched to the city police commissioner S. George by the Additional Commissioner (south-L&O) K. Shankar in a crime review meeting on Wednesday.
This social media platform initiative will become a crucial link in a slew of measures the City Police are undertaking for crime prevention and ensuring the safety of the people, including senior citizens.
The intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday will see atleast eight Whatsapp groups operational, one each per Police station in the Mylapore police district.
When contacted, Mylapore DCP, V. Balakrishnan, said that they were floating the groups on Wednesday night. "The other five police districts of Adyar, Triplicane, St. Thomas Mount, Kilpauk and T. Nagar, will also be part of the initiative approved by the top brass,” said another police official.
