To reduce the mounting crime in the city, Senior Police Officer Tej Raj Singh (ADSP, City) appealed to civilians to co-operate with the police, primarily to access accurate information in no time. UT has published a few salient points on the views expressed by the officer in this matter, on 21^st March.

While reading the whole story, a question that came to mind was how to get in touch with the police when there was no real sense of bonding that existed between a common man and the police administration?

In fact, there is a lack of the trust factor between the public and the police. Whatever the reason; the need of the hour is that the police should step forward in a reconciliatory mode to facilitate closeness and understanding with the common man.

The question that creeps up now is how to make people reach the police in an easier and hassle free manner?

The first idea that strikes my mind is the medium of social networking. Using the Facebook social network, where maximum people have their accounts and give much time sharing information, talking and discussing on anything they like.

In my opinion, approximately more than 50,000 people from Udaipur have facebook accounts and more people get introduced to it every day.

If the Udaipur Police starts a facebook page as a Virtual Help Desk and allows people to update whatever latest information on accident, crime, incident or any mishap they come across, then it would help the Police in collecting more information in real time than their personal local sources.

To beat the heavy traffic of Delhi, Delhi Traffic Police was the first police department of India to adopt Facebook as a medium of interacting with delhiites and now they have more than 1 lakh people who keep themselves updated with the traffic situation of Delhi through Facebook.

Another great example is the Coimbatore Police’s Facebook page which is often handled by the Police Commissioner himself and next in the line is Hyderabad Traffic Police’s FB page where thousands of people post complains, queries and photos of offenders, etc.

The people of Udaipur are rapidly going online, with a number of local news sites, e-commerce sites and job portals and on FB, then why not Udaipur’s police department should think about it seriously and positively?

It’s my suggestion to the Police Department of Udaipur to consider these points made on my personal experience as I have been working in Online Media for the past several years.

1. Most of Udaipur’s youth who are on Facebook use it from mobile phones.

2. Majority of Udaipur’s employees from IT, Banking, Consultancy sectors are on Facebook or are anyways, net savvy.

3. Majority of Udaipur’s private schools have their Facebook pages.

4. Majority of people who reside or work outside Udaipur use Facebook as a medium to connect with their relatives and friends.