Bangalore, Jun 8 (DHNS): In a sign of the changing times, the State Criminal Investigation Department on Monday became probably the first law-enforcing agency in the country to join the popular social networking sites “Facebook” and “Twitter.”
Aiming to gain help in solving various crimes, the premier investigating agency hopes to remove the obstacles people face in approaching it.
Dr DV Guruprasad, Director General of Police, CID, says the idea struck him during an interaction with the captains of IT/ITES industries in the city last month. “They made a presentation about the use of social media to improve police functioning and it sounded great. Hence, we decided to join these sites immediately,” Guruprasad said.
Further, the CID boss felt that joining a social networking site was a step towards bringing about transparent administration and also as a measure of involving the tech-savvy community in law enforcement. A number of CID officials will update the pages regularly.
The general public would be kept abreast of the happenings in the CID including the status of important and high-profile cases being investigated by it, Guruprasad added.
Anyone having an account on “Facebook” and “Twitter” can follow the CID chief whose user ID is DGPCIDKARNATAKA. “I hope to invite tips from the community to help us fight offences like cyber crime, multi-level marketing frauds, narcotics, counterfeit currency, illegal storage/use of arms and explosives, human trafficking, wildlife offences, etc.,” he told Deccan Herald. This can be done by joining the “helpcidkarnataka” group that has been created on the “Facebook” page, he added.
According to Guruprasad, who had joined these sites long ago, social networking sites have immense potential in helping solve various crimes. “Nobody has to call me or bear the inconvenience of coming to my office. Just type your grievance and we would reply to you,” he explained.
Hoping that the move will also result in a better understanding of the investigating agency, Guruprasad said that it would also help the media.