How Twitter aided police to curb crime in festive season
The festive season recorded no major security incidences, the police said on Friday, attributing the situation to better coordination among security agents and widespread use of technology to detect and prevent crime.
Police spokesman Eric Kinoti on Friday singled out social media, especially Twitter and the use of CCTV cameras, as having played a big role in enhancing security during the festive season.
He explained that monitoring Twitter updates was the new police strategy that was aiding them to respond to Kenyans in distress in real time.
“Our CCTV centre and Twitter accounts are being manned round-the-clock. We would rather get information and act on it then find out it was a false alarm than just sit on the alert,” he said, adding that the only challenge was that CCTV cameras are only limited to Mombasa and Nairobi.
Save for petty crimes in major towns, Mr Kinoti said that security agents did not find any situation that required serious intervention in places like Nairobi and Mombasa.
“We mapped out several areas thinking there would be a surge in criminal activities, but all was well during the holiday. We worked in a very structured manner like never before,” he said.
The cameras, put up at cost of Sh15 billion, are connected to 195 police stations in Nairobi and Mombasa through the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System.
