Few months ago we had reported that Mumbai police has initiated a social media laboratory which is the country’s first Social Media lab by police force.
It will keep a track of public views and their sentiments. This lab is a step ahead in being prepared to handle sensitive issues and protests.
This first of its kind social media lab has been established with the help of the IT-ITES industry body NASSCOM which deals with technical infrastructure and training, while SocialAppsHQ.com provided the law enforcement agency with a social monitoring app.
SocialAppsHQ.com tracks and provides sentiment analysis, identifies behavioural patterns, influencers and advocates, tracks increase in chatter and generates alerts in real-time on social media platforms.
The firm is also in talks with other law enforcement arms like paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies to set up similar social media tracking labs.
This initiative will assist our law enforcement agencies in handling sensitive issues like the protests following the Delhi rape case or the Jan Lokpal issue. Last year, the police had failed to gauge the size and seriousness of public sentiments until things had gone out of control. In almost all these matters, social media was used as a driver to ramp up support
SocialAppsHQ CEO Rajat Garg said, (Source:India Today)
In Mumbai, police is witnessing active participation from citizens on social media websites. Issues like local body tax, acid attack are hotly discussed online in various groups and by various influencers on Twitter and Facebook
Through automated social media intelligence tools from SocialAppsHQ.com, police can now find out anti-social groups actively participating in creating disturbance and take timely and preventive measures, he added.
Also, it helps police to understand the mood and emotions of citizens, thus providing input to relevant authorities to take early corrective action, Garg said.
He explained, that the lab processes only the data that is available on public platforms using algorithms and brings out patterns, which are then further analysed to identify various activities. This data will be made available to public for better understanding.