TikTok videos usually spell trouble for Tamil Nadu's youth, especially when it involves police personnel or vehicles. But on Wednesday in Thoothukudi district, the social media app took two young men a step towards their dreams of joining the police force, after their video caught the attention of authorities.
In the 14-second video, two men are seen seated on a police van, moving their lips to a movie dialogue before breaking into song. The van, according to the police belonged to the armed reserve unit and was at a workshop in Cadwell colony. On Tuesday, the three youths, two of them aged 17, stood before it and made the video while another boy shot them performing. The driver of the van noticed this and informed higher authorities about it.
But instead of reprimanding or punishing the three, Thoothukudi town DSP R Prakash heard them out.
"Two of the boys were studying Literature and IT while the other had dropped out of school after the sixth standard. When I spoke to them, they expressed their wish to eventually join the police force and I realised, we should be encouraging them. We have a 'Friends of Police' group, which involves students. These boys specifically wanted the traffic beat and so we let them man the roads, supervised, for a couple of hours."
Youths who made a tik tok video on a police van in Thoothukudi made to man traffic on roads.
— priyankathirumurthy (@priyankathiru) January 9, 2020
But this was not a punishment. Police tell TNM that it was to motivate them after they expressed interest in joining the police force. pic.twitter.com/ARtUwCvshI
The officer believes the move will encourage them to look positively towards the police force and fuel their aspirations.
"The boy who dropped out cannot qualify but the other two should definitely keep working towards their dreams," says the officer. "They have promised to volunteer during the weekends and holidays. There is no point in punishing such youths. We must motivate them instead."