Bengaluru police to start its own TV news

BENGALURU: The city police is all set to add another feather to its social media cap by telecasting crime news and alerts not only through YouTube and Facebook but on its own television news channel.

With over 10 lakh followers on its social media sites, these efforts are to further expand its engagement with the public. DCP (Command Center) MG Nagendra Kumar told ET that the department was working on airing its daily media briefing through its social media sites.Once the equipment is put in place, property-recovery parades, arrests, alerts and the like would go online. "The visual information will reach faster and directly, without any confusion," he added.

Only recently, the city police set an example on twitter ­ where city commissioner MN Reddi alone has 3.61 lakh followers ­ by adopting the periscope app to receive visual complaints. A senior police officer in the city control room confirmed that the television channel -likely to be called Police News -is in the works. The studio's design has been finalised and will be located on the fifth floor of the new building at the commissioner's office on Infantry Road.

Apparently , police personnel will be trained to read news like anchors on any other news channel.

While it is still in the discussion stage, the bosses are clear that the telecast will not be round the clock, he revealed.