Steps taken to make city safer
Lexington Police Chief Mark Barnard speaks to the media Monday, Sept. 19, before privately meeting at St. Augustine’s Chapel in Lexington, Ky., with local residents to talk about concerns of an alleged serial rapist on UK’s campus. Photo by Joshua Qualls | Staff
December 7, 2016
The Lexington Police Department and private social networking company, Nextdoor, have partnered to make the city safer and easier to communicate within neighborhoods.
The partnership went into effect on Nov. 30 and 200 neighborhoods have already started Nextdoor websites in the Lexington area.
According to their website, Nextdoor is a free private social network for neighbors of a community. Some of the examples given that can be conducted on a Nextdoor site include: quickly getting the word out about a break-in, track down a trustworthy babysitter, and find the best paint job in town. The sites can be used for serious emergency alerts, as well as getting to know neighbors better.
Kelsey Grady is the Head of Communications at Nextdoor. She believes that Nextdoor will succeed at its goal to bring back a sense of community to neighborhoods that may have been previously lost.
“Research shows that 28 percent of Americans cannot name a single neighbor by name,” Grady said.
According to Grady, Nextdoor is in more than 119,000 neighborhoods across the United States, which is about 70 percent of the country. On average, about 75 new neighborhoods launch a Nextdoor website every day.
The Lexington Police Department is excited about the partnership that connects communities to the social media world. Brenna Angel, the Public Information Officer for the Lexington Police Department, thinks the new initiative will allow easier communication between the police and residents about safety concerns.
“The department plans to use Nextdoor to share crime prevention tips, public safety alerts, events where officers are available to meet with residents, and investigation updates that are relevant to a particular neighborhood,” Angel said.
The police department decided to partner with the company because many other law enforcement agencies use it and some of the officers, as well as thousands of Lexington residents, were already signed up as homeowners. The department wanted to get a hold of the free service as a whole.
Since the launch that happened just a week ago, the police department has received a lot of “thank-you’s.” Utilizing social media will make reporting concerns to the police easier than ever.