The cop who showed the Twitterati how it’s done

2015 brought with it a virtual revolution within the police force, as top cops took to their Twitter handles and giving frustrated citizens the chance to file their complaints online. Bengaluru welcomed the change with gusto and the man to thank is M.N. Reddi, whose brief, year-long stint as police commissioner brought about a police force that was prompt, approachable and never missed a beat, really.

The method that paved the way to a new, tech-intensive way of policing was called Urban Policing and kicked off in 2015. Soon after he assumed office, the then police commissioner M N Reddi tapped into the explosive potential of social media to connect the common man with the city police force. He began by urging Bengalureans follow him on Twitter and in no time at all, amassed over 3.5 lakh followers. The Bengaluru City Police became the only force in the country to have used social media to such effect and to become part of the PM’s Twitter Samvad – a platform to have discussions on political and civic matters.

Reddi assumed office in July 2014 with a vision that included roping in citizens on a massive scale and change the old mind set that there is no use going to the police. Before his term ended a little over a year later, Reddi had succeeded in making the city police force known to Bengalureans as “Your Own Police.” And as he explained, it meant starting from scratch. “We needed to start with the basics and police the policing as we tackled our primary concerns - safety and security.”

Social media proved a revelation in more ways than one. It did away with the hassles of taking grievances to the local police station, brought citizens in direct contact with top brass, allowed complaints to be registered on Twitter (which were nearly always cracked at lightning speed) and established much-needed transparency in a system rife with corruption.

Talking about his tryst with the social media, Mr. M N Reddi said, “We breathe and live social media. What is a better way to connect with citizens and give them a hand in policing the police? One-third of the city’s population and 75% of the youth can access police stations at the touch of a button, and to them, this accountablity and sense of ownership of the police force was a matter of great satisfaction,” he explained.

“After popularising Twitter, we gave citizens a fair stake in policing. People became active and began participating in the functioning of the police. Our police created an open police-public interface which was publicly accessible and viewed by lakhs of users. Using a social media tool like Twitter also helped me galvanize the hierarchy, which in turn helped make the police prompt and responsive to the problems of their people.”

With over a million followers on the microblogging site, Mr Reddi created a mobile police force of over 3.5 lakhs citizens, better known as citizen informants, by engaging them to narrow the gap between police force and citizens on social media networking sites like Twitter and FaceBook.