Next time the Bengaluru police announces the arrest of a drug dealer, it won’t be accompanied by a ‘Narcos’-themed quirky meme.
The recent change in approach to accommodate more Kannada content on social media has put the popular memes on the back-burner.
The Quint has learnt that the private agency, which was putting out memes based on various popular TV series, is no longer working with the Bengaluru police, as their contract has not been renewed.
As it turns out, just like Jon Snow, the cops know nothing about memes.
An Applauded Innovation in Policing
Earlier this year, Bengaluru police had replaced uniformed policemen running their social media pages with a group of young consultants, who gave a fantasy fiction twist to boring police information.
"If you're wondering why your dealer did not reach you with your stash, this is probably why. Don't worry, you can come to the police station and collect it," read a tweet announcing the arrest of a drug dealer.
These memes and funny tweets were an instant hit, not just among netizens of Bengaluru but audience nationwide. In fact, taking a cue from their counterparts in Bengaluru, Mumbai police also started a similar project on their social media platforms.
Cops Say ‘Dracarys’ To Popular Memes
While on this high of popularity, to everyone’s surprise, no fresh memes appeared on the Facebook pages of Bengaluru police for a long time. The officers concerned said that the tender of the agency, which was putting out the content on a trial basis, has been not been renewed.
The reason – cops wanted more content for the Kannada-speaking crowd, which they said constituted a large percentage of their audience.
For several weeks now, no new public information with a funny bone have appeared on the social media platform. The interactions were mostly messages issued in public interest, drafted in a formal language.
Kannada Content Needed
A senior police officer said that the debate about a change in social media content has been going for months now. “Yes, these memes were a hit, but it was limited to a niche audience, who watched these shows. The agency was not able to provide similar content in Kannada,” a senior IPS officer said.
Interestingly, Bengaluru police experimented with Kannada memes, but they didn’t click and during this experiment, the fantasy-fiction-based memes were given an unceremonious burial.
Cops Handling Social Media Again
T Suneel Kumar, city police commissioner, said that the social media cell of Bengaluru police will be running the platforms now. However, he insisted there has not been any change in the social media policy of the Bengaluru police. He also added that the agency handling the social media earlier was operating only on a trial basis.
Perception Management than Policing
Even though pop culture based social media posts were a hit, several police officers believe that the contribution of social media in fighting crime is limited and they want the focus to be on boots-on-the-ground policing.
However, one of the senior police officers, who was instrumental in giving a boost to social media in policing, said that more than crime fighting, social media was about ‘perception management’.
“Ultimately, the aim of investing in social media was to have direct communication with the citizens. With all our social media platforms put together, Bengaluru police has over 14 lakh followers, which is a large part of the active social media users in Bengaluru,” the officer added.
Having memes and other tools will give the police a connect with young audience and there was a considerable increase in the number of followers while these memes were a hit. “With a larger followership, police can now reach out to over 14 lakh people at the same time. It is a big thing to be able to directly communicate to the citizens,” the officer added.
Different Commissioners, Different Priorities
Bengaluru police began using social media actively since 2015. During the initial months, Twitter replaced police stations as the ideal place to file police complaints. Under a tech savvy police commissioner, MN Reddi, responses to these ‘tweet petitions’ were quick as well.
However, when the new police commissioner, NS Megharikh, took over, he went back to basic policing. His focus was to get more patrolling vehicles on the streets and increasing the police presence, and social media got little attention.
Recently under Praveen Sood, Bengaluru police cops re-energised social media by getting memes and other content, appealing to the young population. However, with the new commissioner T Suneel Kumar taking over, who has made women’s safety his priority, social media activity has been stripped down a bare minimum, of being a medium of receiving and sending information.
Fans Disappointed
Rohan Menezes, a graphic designer and avid fan of the Bengaluru police’s social media posts, were among the disappointed fans. “Who would have thought a police department would get dedicated followership for their sense of humour? I used to check their page for these gems. It is disappointing to know that they are not producing them anymore. Maybe there is more Kannada speaking audience, but why should they stop these memes? This will give young people more confidence to approach police,” he said.
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