If you roll, we will weed you out: Mumbai top cop creates Twitter buzz

The top cop manages time from his busy schedule to meet his newly formed team every weekday evening to decide the course of action on the social media

Mumbai Police commissioner Ahmad Javed is new at managing the social media but the witty one-liners from his Twitter handle have already helped his department grab the eyeballs as well as the trends on the social media platform.

Mumbai Police commissioner Ahmad Javed is the talk of Twitter town following his witty tweets on anti-drugs awareness week. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

On Wednesday, “Mumbai Police” was trending on Twitter after the commissioner’s official account posted its latest warning to mark anti-drugs awareness week.

“If you roll, we will weed you out,” read the @CPMumbaiPolice tweet, which was re-tweeted more than 1,500 times.

The senior police officer manages time from his busy schedule to meet a newly-formed group every evening on weekdays to decide the course of action on social media. During the meetings, his team decides the campaign, the selection of one-liners and the graphics and the design.

“A good citizen is a partner in law enforcement and we wanted to connect to the citizens through Twitter. At the end of the day, the message should go out strongly and awareness should be created. The forum is effectively used to redress the problems of peoples,” Javed told Hindustan Times.

The anti-drug campaign on Wednesday morning was only the latest in a series of catchy tweets from both the Mumbai Police and the commissioner’s official handles.

His tweets like “Your creepy comments on her photo will get you a long date with us. #CyberSafetyWeek” also has had the Twitterati react instantly.

“The commissioner has a great sense of humour and comes up with the witty one-liners with a strong message. We get around 30 notifications in 10 seconds. The grievances are reported to the concerned authorities for actions,” Sunchika Pandey, a former journalist who introduced the idea to the department, said.

“Humour is the best way to connect with people. We are not trivialising the subject but adding humour to reach out to people,” she added.

While content marketing and digital media agency Trivone Digital Services manages the accounts, assistant police inspector Ashwini Koli heads Mumbai Police’s web development centre and works in tandem with Trivone.

Koli addresses people’s issues posted on Twitter by directing them to the concerned authorities.

The team also includes Amyn Ghadiali and Ritwik Maindargi, who are both in their twenties and work relentlessly to drive home the department’s message. Ghadiali works as a strategy head and Maindargi is a community manager for Trivone.

It responds to grievances or suggestions put forward by followers after their tweets on various campaigns such as the importance of wearing a helmet, anti-drug messages, cyber safety and traffic sense among others.