Bihar police to use Whatsapp network

Patna, March 20: In order to keep pace with fast changing technological advancement, Bihar police have decided to use Whatsapp, e-mail, Twitter and Facebook applications to share information among its officers.

For this, state police headquarters have decided to provide its officers android smartphones in order to have better coordination and sharing of information and documents among them.

"All the police officials- right from Station House Officers (SHOs) to DGP- will be given Android smartphones for better and efficient state-level coordination. The use of smartphones will instantly connect all the officers right from police station level to state-level," Inspector-General (Provisions) Pankaj Darad said.

Stating that the distribution process has started, Darad said that of 1,390 smartphones that the police headquarters have purchased at a price of Rs 15,000 per handset, 940 sets would be given to SHOs of the state besides the senior officials like DySPs, SPs, DIGs, IGs, ADGs and DGP.

The decision of the government to provide smartphones to its officials would cost Rs 2.08 crore. The police, at present, have wirelesses that officers use, apart from cellphones, to receive and send information.

All the officers must download WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter on the department's phones so that they can communicate with colleagues and take orders from seniors instantly, Darad said.

Talking about the purpose of providing smartphones to its officials, IG (Provisions) said "the idea is to have better state-level coordination among the officials right from police station level to state levels. "The move would help connect all the police officials with each other, thus receiving and sending messages would become quick and instant."

PTI