Modi for a media-savvy police force

Officers asked to identify, and provide information to journalists who write in national interest.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday told top policemen of the country that every police station should appoint a yoga teacher and police should brand themselves by promoting their work on Twitter and television. 

He asked policemen to flood the social media with the digital version of their work.

While giving the concluding speech at the three-day DGPs’ conference in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, Mr. Modi said each police force should have a panel of experts who could participate in debates on television channels and put across their side of the story. 

He asked officers to identify journalists who write in national interest and provide them with information. “These 24-hour news channels need to be fed information. Sit down and brief the media. Not like the CBI, which gives walking bytes,” Mr. Modi is learnt to have told the top policemen. 

An officer, who attended the meeting, said that Mr. Modi asked all State police forces to be present on Twitter through an official page. He said he wanted to send text messages to all policemen in the country on every Republic Day. 

He promoted the Swatch Bharat campaign of the government and said that cleanliness did not require money and it was a state of mind. The sweeper working at the police station was not a personal employee of the officers. 

He asked for grading police stations based on their performance. 

“Prime Minister Modi said that the police should help administer polio drops or encourage people to send daughters to school. This will help the police interact with the public,” said an officer. 

Mr. Modi also debunked the theory that higher police-to-population ratio was essential to maintain peace. “A city is peaceful not because of the police but because of the peaceful nature of the population. So, asking for higher police-to-public ratio is incorrect and the western model could not be emulated here.” 

The officer quoted Mr. Modi as saying that every police force should have an articulate spokesperson who should brief the media. Every policeman with five-ten years’ experience should teach for 100 hours a year.

The police in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi had involved family and community elders in deradicalisation of a few youths who had come under the influence of the Middle-East terrorist group Islamic State, Mr. Modi pointed out. 

He also sought greater interaction between the police forces of neighbouring districts across State borders.

“The Prime Minister touched upon subjects such as cyber security, digital technology and social media, and said police officers should use emerging technologies effectively in their work,” an official statement said.

The Prime Minister said the discussions and inputs involved both junior and senior officers from across the country, and this had helped break silos, which is a significant achievement. Mr. Modi also spoke on the subjects of tourism policing, disaster management and police training. 

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministers of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju and Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, were present at the conference organised by the Intelligence Bureau.