Online network to connect LR, neighborhoods

Nextdoor lets authorities, users post crime, news tips

Little Rock has joined a social networking platform that will allow the city’s police and fire departments to send emergency alerts, news and other information to residents in specific areas of the city.

City spokesman Jennifer Godwin said officials were training to use Nextdoor, a free service that connects users based on their geographic location. According to Nextdoor, the platform is mostly used to share recommendations for neighborhood services, such as home repairs or baby-sitting, and to post advertisements.

But the service is also frequently used to post crime and safety information — a virtual neighborhood watch.

“Engaged communities lead to safer communities,” Police Chief Kenton Buckner said in statement. “This is another way our department can, through increased awareness and interaction with residents, address the issue of crime. Public safety is not a spectator sport.”

Nextdoor, a San Francisco-based company, states on its website that about 1,600 public agencies across the country use the service, including the Houston; Boise, Idaho; Phoenix; and Oakland, Calif., police departments.

Godwin said Little Rock officials should begin regularly communicating with residents through Nextdoor in about three weeks. There are about 14,000 Little Rock residents who use the service, which can be accessed online at nextdoor.com or through its mobile app.

Unlike other social networks, Nextdoor verifies the locations of its users through their home addresses and requires them to use real names. Godwin said those features ensure the city is communicating with actual residents. The city has about 11,600 followers on Twitter and roughly 5,500 on Facebook, but it’s unclear how many of them live in Little Rock.

Nextdoor’s emergency alerts can be sent to certain areas, zones or districts — or all of them — through text message, email or push notifications on mobile devices. Godwin said she didn’t have information on when the city will issue emergency

alerts but that the frequency of those alerts will be “very measured.”

“You don’t want people to get scared about something when it’s really not something that should be at that level,” she said.

Nextdoor users can send tips to police privately through the service, or post crime and safety information publicly. This year, after some users had criticized the service as fostering racial discrimination and fear, the service added new requirements for publicly reporting suspicious people or activities.

The new rules require physical descriptions beyond a person’s skin color or presumed ethnicity, such as information on clothing.

“We expressly prohibit posts that assume someone is suspicious because of their race or ethnicity,” the company states on its website. “We also prohibit messages that give descriptions of suspects that are so vague as to cast suspicion over an entire race or ethnicity. Such messages are ineffective and harm rather than help communities.”

Each Nextdoor neighborhood is private, meaning users who do not live in a designated area cannot see the conversations of residents who do live there. According to Nextdoor’s website, the network has 138 Little Rock neighborhoods.

Godwin said all Little Rock residents on Nextdoor will be able to see the city’s activity. But, as a privacy feature, the city will not be able to see theirs.

“Residents can rest assured,” Godwin said, “we’re not Big Brother snooping on them.”