A new-found vice among police officials

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Those entrusted with maintaining law and order in the state are spending their official hours on social networking.Following widespread complaints in this matter, the Home Ministry has issued orders to ban the misuse and to take stringent action against those who violate the law.Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told Express that orders had been issued to take stringent action against those who used their official designation on social networks.Complaints were received regarding the matter and if any instance of violation is further reported the police officials would have to face disciplinary action.Though the government has not provided any computers or laptops, police officials used high-end gadgets owned by them. There were complaints that the police officials used modern systems like tablet and were wasting time on social networks to circulate their personal comments.The use of social networking sites was detected at a time when the Home Ministry had decided to use these sites to get the whereabouts of missing persons in the state. The Minister said that police officials were not supposed to disclose any official information through these sites.“Police officials using their designation and sharing details are a threat to our security. They can use their personal ID for creating an account, but are not allowed to use these sites during working hours,” Radhakrishnan said.When an instance of a police official using this network came to notice, the DGP was instructed to give him a warning. An explanation from the official said that his daughter had posted on the network but this too was a crime of impersonation, Radhakrishnan said.He also pointed out that as part of the discipline of police force, they were not supposed to write articles in newspapers also. The networks could be used as part of the investigation of a case or for tracing any accused person.However, the police would be present in the networks to propagate awareness about people’s rights, different aspects of law and traffic rules, security from cyber crimes, the bad effects of alcohol and drugs, and precautions to prevent crimes.