If you want to successfully run an organization, you can’t afford to ignore social media. That’s especially true if you’re a running a police department.

Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police SP Vaid said as quoted by Times of India,  “that social media outreach had helped the force counter the propaganda of subversive elements and improve the security situation in the state.”

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp: For police departments social media is as valuable, if not more valuable, a resource than it is for traditional brands and businesses. It helps humanize the force by allowing departments to connect and converse with the general public, but more importantly, it provides a platform for police officers to share information quickly and respond to tips from civilians

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“Social media was misused to a large extent in 2016 to mislead the public and we managed to counter it to a large extent. Our effort to bring into a positive narrative helped in improving the situation to a large extent,” Vaid said, addressing passing-out-cum-attestation parade of 911 recruits at the Subsidiary Training Centre in Talwara.

He said the police department set up media cells in all district headquarters, opened 26 Facebook pages at district police level, 189 Facebook pages at police station level, 31 Twitter handles, five Facebook pages at police range level and two Facebook pages at the zonal level.

This was part of the larger effort to restore peace and normalcy in the state, Vaid said.

He asked the recruits to give their best while serving the people.

Going by news report of HT, the Jammu and Kashmir police have started a crackdown on youth in Kashmir who use social media to allegedly threaten police and other government officials or run a ‘smear campaign’ against them.

The police officials said they have identified seven persons coming under police stations like Pantha Chowk, Zakoora and Chanapora in Srinagar who threatened police and government functionaries through “their posts and uploads”.

They added these miscreants allegedly uploaded and shared videos and posted them to “harm the repute” of the officers.

“Most of them have been arrested and we are ascertaining their motives,” said SSP Srinagar Imtiyaz Parray reported in Hindustan Times.