Social media users were surprised to see a post with a difference from the Kerala police a month ago. The post notified jewellery thieves about an “offer” from the police. They were offered to be adorned with handcuffs.

A series of funny memes followed, drawing on memorable scenes from Malayalam movies to drive home ideas of public safety. The Kerala Police Facebook page has attracted a swell of public support since then. At last count, the followers stand at 4.25 lakh. Twitter following has increased from 16 to 4,000 in the last month.

Trolls in uniforms

The police turned to the funny route to stay afloat in the digital age. Initially, the force found itself grossly ill-equipped to deal with the devastating internet humour. Inspector general Manoj Abraham came up with an idea. Why not force the force to be funny?

As soon as the top brass called in applications from within the force to a newly formed social media cell, they were faced with 60 proposals. Five of them made the cut after a meme-making competition.

The five-men army consists of senior civil police officer Kamal Nath, civil police officer V S Bimal, civil police officer P S Santosh, civil police officer B T Arun and civil police officer B S Biju. The team comes with high qualifications. One of them has a post-graduate degree in computer science from a UK university, while another has a degree in cyber forensics. Yet another has a post-graduation degree in Malayalam.

Homegrown humour

The sudden turn to the funny side spurred doubts that the police have outsourced their social media pages to professional meme makers. In fact, the force had no dearth of funny men. They excelled in creating humorous posts and giving tit-for-tat replies to mischievous comments.

Their job is not as easy as the ordinary trolls on the net. They have to get each of their creations vetted by the top officers, including the inspector general. The proposed memes are first shared in a WhatsApp group of top cops.

They can pull the trigger only after Abraham gives the go-ahead. They are not allowed to venture into controversy territory. The posts cannot be offensive by word or picture.

Beating the retreat

The recent public outrage against the police in a variety of cases reflected on the social media pages as well. When users vented their ire against the cops at will, the page managers sought to play it down. The police have become tolerant to criticism at least on social media.

The team members said that they get the most response from Thiruvananthapuram district, followed by Ernakulam. Not surprisingly, the third largest contingent of social media followers are from Dubai.

Some of the comments have been put up only to be acknowledged by the police. They get thousands of queries to reveal their identities. The team always responded by posting the emblem of the Kerala police.

Most of the followers are supportive of the police. They usually take care of the trolls who rub the police the wrong way.

Waiting for ‘Zucker’

Many users were seen raising a doubt about the authenticity of the page. The Kerala Police Facebook page is not verified yet.

Why not have the blue tick of validity? “We have already asked brother Zucker(berg),” pat came the reply.

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