Traffic cops hit the wall

BANGALORE: Do you have a traffic woe and don't know how to tell the authorities about it? Log in to Facebook and share your problem on the wall of the Bangalore Traffic Police.
You can not only raise your concerns, but also avail of information on various issues, upload photos and videos of any violations or irregularities you come across and even participate in debates with senior police officials.
The 10-day-old account has over 350 friends. Numerous debates on various issues have taking place and people are uploading photos of traffic violations across the city. For instance, Deepak Vijayvergiy tagged a photo of a BMTC bus parked in the middle of the road with the caption: "Please have a look at this pic, taken near the BEL bus stop, instead of having such a good bus-bay and sheltered bus-stop, buses are stopping in the middle of the road".
Some officials of the department are responding to people on a daily basis. Praveen Sood, additional commissioner of police (traffic), told TOI that tech-savvy people of Bangalore will find this initiative "interactive and useful".
He said: "Every person in the city has an opinion on how to solve traffic problems of the city, which usually get conveyed to us through calls, emails and even on the road. By letting them express these opinions in the public domain, we'll let them see the viewpoints of other people and also of the traffic police. We're sure it'll be helpful in avoiding many unwanted grievances against the police and making the relationship with citizens more transparent. We may even find some solutions."
Real-time updates
The recent unexpected showers were an opportunity for the department to use this interface. Traffic alerts on slow-moving traffic and blockades were updated on the wall and these were welcomed by its friends.
Police are looking at receiving traffic updates from users. "The advantage of social networking sites is that they're constantly updated and therefore transfer of information becomes faster. If our "friends" provide us live updates, it'll be a great value-add for us," said Praveen Sood.
See a problem? Upload a photo
The traffic police chief plans to answer some public grievances online. If a citizen wants to report traffic violations, she could use the account to tell the traffic police. "People can upload photos or videos of traffic violations, police harassment or others. We already have few such pictures uploaded on the wall. If the evidence provided by people comes under our jurisdiction, we'll definitely take action," said Sood.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com