The Camden County Police Department announced a partnership with Nextdoor (www.nextdoor.com), the private social network for neighborhoods, to improve city-wide and neighbor-to-neighbor communications.
Led by Chief J. Scott Thomson, this partnership with Nextdoor will enable the Camden County Police Department to use Nextdoor to build stronger, safer communities with the help of Camden residents. The Camden County Police Department and Nextdoor neighborhoods will be able to work together to increase safety and strengthen virtual neighborhood watch. Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. talked about this being the next phase in leveraging technology.
“The CCPD is constantly looking for innovative ways to bolster community relations and nurture dialogue face-to-face and digitally,” Cappelli said. “We believe this partnership will be effective and productive for residents and provide another opportunity to share important information with police officers and neighbors.”
With Nextdoor, Camden residents can create private neighborhood websites to share information, including neighborhood public safety issues, community events and activities, local services, and even lost pets. The police department will be able to post information such as important news, services, programs, free events, and emergency notifications too other Nextdoor websites.
“We know that communication and contact with residents is extremely vital to not only maintaining, but increasing safety and reducing crime within our communities,” said Chief J. Scott Thomson. “With Nextdoor, we can help empower neighbors to keep their communities safe and connected, as well as give them the ability to collaborate on neighborhood watch efforts.”
The genesis of this initiative was spearheaded by a commander looking for another way to connect neighbors. Lt. Zsakhiem James was searching for another tool for neighbors to get the latest information on crime trends in their specific proximity.
“Block by block the city changes rapidly as far as neighborhoods and landscape is concerned, so I was looking for a way to micro target important public service messaging to specific areas,” James said. “Nextdoor gave me that opportunity and now I want to make sure our residents join and spread the word about this unique, private group.
Nextdoor is free for residents and the police department. Each neighborhood has its own private Nextdoor neighborhood website, accessible only to residents of that neighborhood. Neighborhoods establish and self-manage their own Nextdoor website and the police department will not be able to access residents’ websites, contact information, or content. All members must verify that they live within the neighborhood before joining Nextdoor. Information shared on Nextdoor is password protected and cannot be accessed by Google or other search engines.
Those interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website can visitwww.nextdoor.com and enter their address. If residents have questions about their Nextdoor website, please visit help.nextdoor.com.
