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s part of its efforts to improve its service to the public, Tangerang Metro Police requires all police subprecincts and their officers to create Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Tangerang Metro Police chief Sr. Comr. Wahyu Widada said on Wednesday that social media sites could help the police share and receive information directly with local residents.

'€œTechnology continues to develop and many of our community'€™s members use social networking sites to communicate and share information with one another. So why don'€™t we? The police should also use these sites for similar purposes,'€ he said.

Wahyu said that, above all, the police could become closer to residents so that on-duty officers or those on standby would be ready to immediately follow up on any incidents or information sent to them by locals.

'€œCommunity members can inform officers via Facebook or Twitter about traffic congestion, accidents or even crimes, which would allow officers to follow up the information on the spot,'€ Wahyu said.

He believed that creating Twitter and Facebook accounts would help the development of two-way communication between the police and civil society as community members could deliver the latest updated
information.

'€œWe will mobilize all our officers to open accounts on popular social media sites so that they can feel closer to the community. Residents who need information from the police can also ask directly and get a quick response,'€ he said.

When the program is up and running, Tangerang Metro Police may follow the step taken by Jakarta Police'€™s Traffic Management Center (TMC), whose Twitter account @TMCPoldaMetro and Instagram'€™s Tmcpoldametro are considered the most reliable sources of moment-to-moment information on the state of traffic in the capital.

Hari Ambari, an analyst with Awesometrics, a social media and mass media monitoring agency, said that governmental social media accounts should be able to cut through bureaucracy and give immediate answers to people'€™s questions or complaints.

'€œOtherwise, it can be incredibly difficult,'€ he said recently.

He said governmental agencies or companies that already had Twitter accounts should also have the technology to receive messages of the buzzing posts and educate their followers on using hash tags on certain topics to get a quick response.

Tangerang Metro Police'€™s head of detectives, Adj. Sr. Comr. Suhar-yanto, said his superior'€™s idea was in line with public demand for better services.

'€œIt means that eight police subprecincts across the municipality will soon have their own Twitter and Facebook accounts,'€ he said, adding that the police should be able to interact with residents from all walks of life.

Cileduk subprecinct police chief Comr. Abdoel Harry said that his officers were ready to launch their social media accounts.

'€œWe have designed an account that will be useful for interacting with the local community,'€ he said.