MN Reddi: Twitter-savvy top cop in a tech-savvy city

Bangalore police commissioner M N Reddi is a man of character. Of 140 characters, to be precise. Ever since he took over as the kotwal of India's Silicon Valley last August, he has used Twitter very effectively as a communication tool. At Bangalore police, the havaldar's danda has been replaced by the "handle". The twitter handle, that is. All senior officers up to the rank of DCP have to be active on Twitter.

So how has it changed the nature of policing in Bangalore? Sample this:

On the evening of January 17, Priyadarshini Acharya lost her wallet near KR Market in the city. She tweeted to @CPBlr at 8:32 pm : "Hi Sir, I lost my wallet which is having all original document like voter ID, PAN card, DL near KR market''. Fourteen minutes later, the @BlrCityPolice tweeted asking her to contact City Market police station inspector at 9480801717 and tagged the inspector's boss @dcpwestbcp so that he is in the know.

Reddi took over as police commissioner when Bangalore was burning with outrage and the public's confidence in the city police was at an all-time low. That is because a six-year-old student had been raped inside an upmarket school and the citizens weren't happy with the routine approach taken by the police. Six months on, Reddi has managed to bridge the trust deficit by creating a citizen army of tweet informants, giving the police the benefit of online crowdsourcing and the public the confidence that the men in khaki are a responsive lot.

This morning, Reddi triumphantly announced on Twitter:

And updated his bio as well : "M N Reddi, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City. Trying to make Bangalore Police YOUR OWN POLICE''. As a branding effort, Reddi is clearly using Twitter as a vital tool.

From a citizen point of view, the realisation that the commissioner is just a tweet away is a comforting feeling. Between September and December, the police claim to have solved 80 per cent of the complaints received on Twitter. The response is immediate as well. Like this tweet from @CPBlr:

Reddi has allowed the tech-savvy Bangalorean to exert pressure on his police force and surprisingly, it is being met with least resistance from his men and women. In fact, though the commissioner has not asked officers below DCP to have a presence on Twitter, many inspectors have logged in, realising that solving cases the Twitter way, would look better on their CV.

And now Reddi has decided to go one step further, to help citizens get better civic services. If these two tweets are anything to go by, this cop seems determined to make the municipal authorities fall in line.

I asked a couple of senior police officers in Hyderabad why they aren't taking a leaf out of Reddi's book. The reply was that they were not sure how the political bosses in Telangana would react to a police officer with thousands of `followers'. I however, think the Bangalore commissioner's social media initiative is a template that should be emulated in city commissionerates across the country.