Vienna Police Department Partners with Nextdoor for Community Updates

If you’re a member of Vienna’s Nextdoor neighborhood network, you might start to see an increased number of updates on crime and issues in your local community.

Nextdoor is a social networking service focused on neighborhoods, requiring users to submit their real names and addresses to keep the information local. The website often includes reports on crime in the area and has taken some flack as a potential tool for racial profiling.

The Vienna Police Department announced yesterday it’s partnering with the website’s government interface to send updates.

“I am pleased to let you know that starting today; we’ll start using Nextdoor’s free government interface to partner with you and your neighbors to build community, improve quality of life, and work together to make your neighborhood safer and stronger,” Juan Vazquez, public information officer for the Vienna Police Department, said in the post. “As a member of Nextdoor that lives in Town of Vienna, you’ll automatically get our messages.”

The messages can be opted out of at Nextdoor’s management system.

Vazquez also noted in the post that police cannot read what users of Nextdoor are discussing, but can see replies to posts when discussions are enabled.

Photo via Facebook