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.

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.

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.