Overview

Social Media has emerged as a crucial element of E-governance driven by citizens’ expectation of an immediate response to issues and the need for innovation. Social Media has become a powerful tool that helps connect the authorities with people more personally. It is the quickest way to respond and let the right information reach people and avoid controversies. It is also the most efficient medium during crisis management.

Government bodies across the world have accepted digital platforms as extended versions of e-governance. But, while the government has readily chosen this tool to bridge the gap between them and the people, information shared on social media easily becomes a speculative matter if not done diligently. Moreover, an authentic social media handle can be tremendously fruitful during disaster or any type of crisis.

Social media accounts of government authorities such as the Police also serve as a forum for people to voice their complaints and receive redressal. Hence, government organisations can develop a stronger value proposition for building trust and getting closer to the citizens.

About Gujarat Police

After Gujarat’s separation from Greater Mumbai on May 1st,1960, the Gujarat Police Department was established. The Gujarat Police Department is the state’s law enforcement organisation in India. Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar each house the headquarters of the Gujarat Police.

Maintaining public order, ensuring internal security, and identifying and preventing criminal activity in accordance with the legal and constitutional framework while taking Gujarat’s diversity into account are the key objectives of the state police. In order to achieve this, police officers have undergone extensive training to develop a high level of professionalism, a commitment to duty, a performance of a realistic approach, and sensitivity toward the public’s expectations.

Gujarat’s transparent-sensitive-decisive-progressive government has proactively taken every step to digitise its departments for the ease of citizens. Gujarat Police’s social media is one step that initiates a comprehensive effort to fight crime.

Project

“Service to the nation is the purest form of devotion.”

Police are often disregarded as pawns run by corruption, an unapproachable- distant entity which is better kept off. And this notion is not limited to a certain state or a country but is worldwide.

How can a government work if its citizens fear an entity whose sole purpose is to serve and protect them? Clearly, it needed a system to clear such an image and bring them together for nation-building. It required transparency. Many states worldwide chose social media to bridge the gap between the police and citizens. Many state authorities, too, decided to use social media as a platform to reach out to the public.

Gujarat has been considered the safest state in India. But is it simply because of its law-abiding citizens or its hard-working police officers? Well, it is the combination of both. While the government is famous for its progressive stance on everything, it is also known for its sensitivity and transparent work culture. And the government has chosen social media to convey this message to its people.

Gujarat Police also needed an online presence to reach out to its citizens more feasibly and directly. This was when Decode Mediacom came into the picture. Our agency collaborated with the Gujarat Police to create their online presence operational.

As Gujarat Police is not the executive body, we proposed each district should have its own page. Further, we suggested that each district should appoint at least five personnel dedicated to social media operations and one nodal officer to communicate with the rest of the districts.

We were presented with the huge task of devising different accounts, one each for 33 districts and also for their higher authorities. So, our first task was to train officials from these 33 districts on how to operate social media.

Khakhi Tane Salaam Chhe - Gujarat Police

We organised a one-day orientation program at Karai, leading to an intensive session, beginning with opening Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to deciding what, how and when to post. After this, our agency had to ensure that all of these pages remained operational and useful; hence we provided them with continuous backend support.

As discussed earlier, a democratic institution requires collaborative efforts; we devised a concept of community policing to derive citizens’ participation through these accounts. From its inception, we could create that connection with locals, especially from the rural audience.

While policing is a 24*7 job, the Covid-19 pandemic came as a real challenge, as there was very little information on how to tackle the virus. As a result, the state wide lockdown and its implementation became complexing every day. It also led to creating negative publicity for the police personnel who were looked upon as monsters implementing the Covid protocols by citizens across the state.

Fighting together. Winning together - Gujarat Police

To their plight, we decided to create a campaign that makes people aware of the hardships that our police force was facing while working on the ground. Their human side needed to be communicated as our police was working 24×7 leaving behind their families and personal issues. A video was made particularly as an appeal from the police force to the citizens across. From developing the concept to filming and editing it, the entire video was produced in 8 hours.

Our 8 hours of hard work gathered 8-fold results, getting likes, shares and subscribes on all three platforms. It also helped change people’s perceptions about the police who started gathering and attaining much-needed support.

These corona warriors worked relentlessly in the scorching heat of April Sun, facilitating ease and following the everyday state orders without asking for additional support from anyone. They engaged beyond the call of duty to handle humanitarian crises in such testing times. Yet, demanded no appreciation.

As an agency, we went one step further to applaud these unsung heroes. We joined hands with the prestigious Musica Productions and produced ‘Khaki Tane Salaam’ to commemorate their commendable efforts into a musical video.

The song went viral and crossed 80 million views across all platforms withing no time. People loved the song so much that they created many short and unique versions and posted them from different social media handles.

Slowly and gradually, we got involved in carrying out day-to-day social media activities that inform and make aware citizens of Gujarat about the initiatives of police and laws that protect their rights. Decode Mediacom continues packaging the information through graphics, videos, and elaborative text content.

Challenges

Decode Mediacom takes pride in being a catalyst of change and aiding Online Reputation Management for Gujarat Police. It is not only an opportunity to work for a government body but to work within a stipulated periphery boosts our creativity.

It was a 'Eureka' moment for us every time our proposals worked and bore fruits. For instance, during the Covid-19 lockdown, many decisions were made in a decentralised manner. At that time, our efforts in creating those 40 social media pages came in handy to disseminate the correct information and shun rumours. Additionally, the opportunity to serve our country indirectly brings us satisfaction.

Opportunities

While operating on behalf of Gujarat Police, we pay special attention to flourishing the bond between the authorities and citizens in different ways. Yet, we cannot forget the responsibility of keeping the essence of the khaki uniform intact. It brings a different level of complexity for us.

The bigger challenge was that the Gujarat Police is not an executive body authorised for its operations. Hence, we had to root it at the district level. So, when we initially proposed the idea of creating social media pages for each district, social media was still an alien territory for most people. Training people with hardly any knowledge demanded a lot of consistency, care and effort. We continuously consulted all pages for which eventually paid off during the pandemic.

Also, working during Covid-19 brought another level of complexity for us. We had a huge task on our hands to re-establish the lost reputation of the police during the lockdown. Our team had to work under restrictions, protecting ourselves and delivering results.

Impact

We have been handling Gujarat Police's accounts since last 5 years now. We have been actively involved in planning and executing popular campaigns that grew even more popular online and were shared by many.

Moreover, we have turned these pages highly interactive. Consistency in communication and interaction with the public has changed the approach toward us.

Talking in numbers, initially, we had 1.15k followers on Twitter, and at present, we are a family of more than six lakh on Twitter. While on Instagram, we had 20k followers, and we have added over 1 lakh followers on the social media platform.

Above all, we have acquired many intangible gains through this account. Firstly, we have strengthened our team and created a well-developed network to smoothen our coordination. Secondly, we have gained an intense knowledge of the government sector, making us even better enablers.