New Delhi: Delhi Police’s Twitter handle has undergone a colourful makeover, a change from its earlier formal-looking, dry account. The display picture has been changed to an image with the quote, ‘Delhi Police Dil Ki Police’, complete with a heart.
The police officers have also updated their WhatsApp profile pictures with the same image. The handle name has been changed from ‘Delhi Police Aapki Seva Mein, to ‘#DilKiPolice Delhi Police’, a throwback to the old saying, ‘Dilli Dilwalon Ki.’
Anil Mittal, ACP and Additional PRO, told ThePrint this initiative has been undertaken to strengthen the relationship between police personnel and people. “We want to sustain the trust that people are showing us now and ensure that the masses continue to cooperate with us.” The ACP added that this initiative was taken under the direction of Commissioner of Police S.N. Shrivastava.
The national capital’s police force has also put out red banners near barricades with its newly changed Twitter handle name across the city, which read, ‘Jo Dil Se Karen Desh Ka Kaam’.
Moreover, in recent times, the Delhi Police Twitter handle has also started answering all questions regarding the lockdown that has been put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus. Its social media account has also become quite active in replying to queries tweeted by people. PRO and spokesperson M.S. Randhawa looks after the social media account and coordinates with on ground staff to address issues faced by the public.
Hi! Delhi
If you have any question on the #Lockdown, tweet your query with the hashtag #LockdownQuery between 5-6 PM today and we will answer it for you.#StayAtHomeSaveLives@HMOIndia@LGDelhi@CPDelhi— #DilKiPolice Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) March 24, 2020
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Feeding people, ferrying women in labour to hospital
Randhawa told ThePrint that these steps were formulated to increase people-to-police contact and boost the morale of the ground staff.
“We discussed chalking out a plan to adopt these new strategies with different teams, after our beat cops started calling us regularly to inform the kind of love and praise that they are getting from the public. They told us they feel extremely satisfied while attending to the needs of the people beyond their call of duty,” he said.
“Our staff has been working hard to help the masses survive the lockdown, from providing essential commodities and helping our senior citizens to carrying expecting mothers in PCR vans to hospitals. This is an attempt to motivate them so that they deliver these duties with more passion and to ensure that people know we are there to help.”
Randhawa added that they will also start sharing pictures of these services so that people better understand police personnel.
On Wednesday, the Delhi Police posted a 58-second video of its staff working in the community kitchen of Najafgarh police station. The Additional PRO said the staff has been cooking and delivering food to those in need since the announcement of the lockdown. The video was created with help of SHO, Sunil Mittal.
The police said no PR teams were hired to design the new banners and that it was completely done by Delhi Police’s different teams.
“The new measures that we have undertaken to reach out to more and more people are actually quite inexpensive. The steps were discussed with all officers and our PRO spoke to all the ground staff. We have tried our best to ensure that supply chains are working without disruption so that essential commodities are available during this lockdown. Our efforts have been praised, and this is a step towards connection building between cops and people,” said Shrivastava.
He added that police officers have carried more than 1,000 expecting mothers to hospitals for delivery during the lockdown. Till Wednesday evening, the Delhi Police has received as many as 30,000 calls from people facing issues related to food scarcity, passes for movement, supply of medicines and on its helpline numbers.
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