‘Nextdoor’ endorsed by county sheriff’s department
Healdsburg has joined Nextdoor, a free private social network for neighborhoods that aims to build stronger, safer communities with the help of residents. Through Nextdoor, users can join private neighborhood websites to share information, including neighborhood public safety issues, community events and activities, local services and even lost pets.
Nextdoor is available to all neighborhoods across the U.S. and there are 214 launched Nextdoor neighborhoods in Sonoma County, including those in Windsor, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Bodega Bay, Guerneville and Sebastopol. There are currently six Nextdoor neighborhoods in Healdsburg: Healdsburg, Fitch Mountain, Parkland Farms, North Healdsburg, Presidential Estates and Bailhache/Rio Lindo.
Each neighborhood has its own private website, accessible only to residents who verify that they live in the neighborhood. Neighborhoods establish and self-manage their own Nextdoor websites. Information shared on Nextdoor is password protected and cannot be accessed by search engines.
When making a post, neighbors have the option to share their content with just their neighborhood, or any of their nearby neighborhoods. Nearby neighborhoods are initially determined by size. Members can personalize their settings to select exactly which nearby neighborhoods they would like to communicate with.
Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke said that while the police department is not familiar with this particular platform, anything that enhances communication and information sharing between neighbors, and between residents and their police department, would benefit the community and police, and is something the department would consider using.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office recently announced a collaboration with Nextdoor. The sheriff’s office will be able to communicate online with neighborhoods by posting information to Nextdoor websites within their jurisdiction.
“We can go on our own government page and create any type of message, it will be crime or safety related, and send that message out to a particular neighborhood, a set of neighborhoods, a certain zone in our county or everyone,” said Jennifer Abrao, community services officer with the Crime Prevention Unit at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. “We really have the ability to get the information exactly where it is that we need it, and quickly.”
The goal is for residents and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office staff to work together to improve safety and strengthen neighborhood watch efforts. “Communication is key. It’s the number one concept when we talk to neighborhood watch groups,” said Abrao, who said she hopes people who use the network get a sense of community and the feeling that those close by are looking out for one another.
The sheriff’s office will not be able to access residents’ websites, contact information or content, except for direct posts sent to the sheriff’s office.
Nextdoor Communications Associate Danielle Styskal said that the social network’s mission is to use the power of technology to build stronger and safer neighborhoods. “Neighbors turn to Nextdoor for everyday things, like sharing recommendations for a local plumber or trusted babysitter, to more personal things like helping find a lost family pet, to critical things, like communicating about a rash of break-ins,” she said.
“The Pew Research Institute released data stating that nearly 30 percent of Americans couldn’t name a single neighbor by name. Nextdoor was built to change this,” Styskal said.
Nextdoor launched nationally in October 2011, and is based in San Francisco. Today, it is being used by more than 63,000 neighborhoods in 50 states, Styskal said.
Those interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website can visit www.nextdoor.com and enter their address. The website will show if the address is already a part of a neighborhood, and if it’s not then it will prompt the user to create one. There is also a mobile app for the network.
