Mumbai police take Twitter by storm with pun-filled tweets

[MUMBAI] Mumbai's police force was late to Twitter, but it has made up for lost time since joining last month with a series of pun-filled tweets.

The term "Mumbai Police" was trending on the social media site in India on Wednesday after the commissioner's official account posted its latest warning, to mark anti-drugs awareness week.

"If you roll, we will weed you out," read the @CPMumbaiPolice tweet, which was quickly re-tweeted more than 1,000 times and won praise from Indian Twitter users.

"Mumbai police account is giving Twitter stand-up comedians a good run for their money," posted one user.

Another tweeted: "Ok, Mumbai Police just killed it. The rest of you, go home." The Mumbai police commissioner's account has grown to have at least 22,000 followers since launching alongside the force's other official account, @MumbaiPolice, on December 27. The latter has more than 30,000 followers.

Wednesday's tweet wasn't the first by police in the western Indian city to have caught Indian netizens' imagination with its use of humour to get across a serious message.

"Your creepy comments on her photo will get you a long date with us," read a tweet from the commissioner warning against posting inappropriate or offensive comments online.

"Giving out your personal details to strangers may land you in a 'web' of problems," was another post put out to promote their online security campaign.

The force's traffic awareness week, also earlier this month, was marked with some puns as well, including a tweet which read: "Helmet or Hell-met. Choose Wisely." Deputy commissioner Dhananjay Kulkarni told AFP that the twin accounts were being run by Indian content marketing and digital media agency Trivone Digital Services.

"The tweets are approved by police first," he said.

AFP