Cops scan social media to curb wheelie menace

They have been tracking online accounts to identify and nab the offenders

The Bengaluru traffic police have booked 70 people for performing wheelies and bike stunts on public roads since January. A majority were tracked down by their social media monitoring team.

While installing barricades and deploying cops in and around areas that see a high volume of such incidents were fruitful, it was also easy for the miscreants to evade the police. Some policemen even sustained injuries on the job. Social media tracking has been the most effective measure, says Mohammad Sujeetha, deputy commissioner of police, traffic (south).

In south Bengaluru, 26 men were booked this year. Of which, five were minors, says Sujeetha.

Covert operation

Explaining why social media has made it easier to take these offenders to task, Sujeetha says, “A regular chase could pose a threat to the public and to the police. This way, we are doing our job covertly and not endangering anyone.”

The team typically views social media posts. If the police are suspicious of an account, they go undercover and approach the account holder via direct messages. They also look at details like the number plates to trace them. “Sometimes they use fake number plates. So we resort to other methods,” she adds.

According to Anucheth M N, joint commissioner of police (traffic), the social media team has been created with the specific purpose of cracking down on wheelie perpetrators, and the number of people booked has “skyrocketed” since. Penalty varies from fines and cancellation of driving licence to suspension of vehicle registration.

While the suspension of the culprits’ social media account might sound like a logical step in the investigation, Anucheth shares that it is not grave enough to warrant such action under the law. “Social media accounts can be suspended only in heinous cases, such as for propagation of hate. Doing wheelies does not qualify,” he explains.

Though social media surveillance has aided in the crackdown, there are some downsides to it. “The offenders close their social media accounts and open new accounts under different aliases. We are forced to trace them again,” says Anucheth, adding that it is a continuous process and that one-time measures are futile.

Weekends and late nights

Muralidhara C V, chief traffic warden (Bengaluru Police Traffic Warden Organisation) says that wide and smooth roads such as NICE Road, Airport Road, and stretches of Bannerghatta Road are popular for such activities, especially on weekends and late at night.

Most offenders are between 16 and 25 years of age, and quite a few of them work in mechanic shops and use borrowed bikes, he says. Most often, they remove the silencers and modify the mudguards for better pick up and to make it easier to perform stunts. “The last three months have seen a spurt of such cases because the police have been busy with other responsibilities such as elections,” he tells Metrolife.

The police have been conducting special drives and awareness campaigns to curb these activities. Muralidhara shares that his team also conducts road safety awareness sessions at colleges and schools. “But we are not able to reach youth who are not in school or college,” he says, adding that they are currently in the process of recruiting more traffic wardens. “Currently we have 850-plus wardens in Bengaluru,” he shares.