Bengaluru Police Have Joined TikTok to Connect With 'the Youth'

When they’re not busy trying to arrest people who don’t stand up for the national anthem, the Bengaluru police has often pulled off wild shit like putting mannequins in charge of traffic duty or mirrors to prevent public pissing. Now, they’re taking their agenda even further out of their comfort zone and have migrated to TikTok to reach the masses with their woke messages.

The Bengaluru police launched a TikTok profile on February 8 in an attempt to send out woke messages to all the millennials and Gen Z representatives on the short-form video making platform. "We are on TikTok because it is a very popular platform and it connects well with youth,” Isha Pant, the south east Bengaluru DCP, told India Today. “We will put up awareness videos and also maintain humour quotient.”

The idea is to employ creativity and humour into creating content that even a young person can connect to. The profile that has already garnered more than 25,000 followers includes videos on subjects like overcrowded school vans, traffic rules and even flexing their force’s musical talents with videos of police officers trying to hit the right notes.

This decision is also super progressive given that when professionals like police officers and doctors have made TikTok videos wearing their uniforms in the past, they have either been suspended or told off for doing so. In fact, it got so bad that TikTok basically banned anyone from wearing such uniforms in their videos, making some resort to cardboard cutouts that declare their profession instead.

But despite their most earnest efforts, we’re pretty sure that “the youth” is probably just going to roll their eyes and dismiss the desperation with which the Bengaluru police are trying to make themselves viral. Their concepts feel outdated, lame and yawn-worthy, like that unwanted uncle at every wedding who will keep popping up to ask you if you remember them and then proceed to take a selfie with you even if you don’t want to. And considering TikTok is filled with enough people to tickle your funny bone, this flock of sheep probably isn’t going to stand out. Still, at least they tried, even if it was trying too hard.

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