Mumbai: In a bid to build a brand and image, the Maharashtra Police is in the process of setting up a communication cell. The cell will have at least 12 police officials headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) rank officer. The cell would focus on publicising good work and initiatives done by the Maharashtra Police and would tap all social media platforms for wider reach.
According to an officer, last month a meeting of senior IPS officers was held at the Director General of Police (DGP) office, wherein it was discussed on how to build up the positive image of the police department and bring about the positive work done by the police before the public. A decision was then made in this meeting that a dedicated Communication Cell should be set up headquartered in Mumbai. The home department officials were then made aware about this decision.
"The idea behind setting up a dedicated cell is basically to disseminate good work done by the police to the citizens and the media and to create a brand and imagery of the state police force. The existing social media presence (on Twitter and Facebook) of the city and district police departments would continue to function, the Communication Cell will be kind of a centralised unit to monitor overall content of all the police presence in the state on social media. Things are still under pipeline. We will be tapping maximum social media platforms," said additional director general of police, Vinay Kargaonkar.
"The Cell would be headed by an ACP rank officer at the position of Team Leader. For this post, we are in the process of recruiting an officer who has worked in the Cyber Cell and is good with Public Relations as well. The officer should have good knowledge of computers and should have a creative blend. The other team members working under him would be media savvy, extrovert and social," the officer said.
