- COPS Office Photo Contest – May Winner
        - Stop Hate: Action Steps for Local Communities
        - Social Media and Neighborhood-Based Policing Officers: A Path Forward
        - The OK Program: A Collaborative Partnership between Law Enforcement and the African-American Community
        - Co-Producing Public Safety: Communities, Law Enforcement, and Public Health Researchers Work to Prevent Crime Together
        - 2016 COPS Office Solicitations

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### Social Media and Neighborhood-Based Policing Officers: A Path Forward

If you look at the way most law enforcement  agencies are using social media, you will notice a few themes. First, you will  see how agencies are showing the human and compassionate side of policing with  pictures of officers posing with kids, playing basketball, and even some  officers dancing with youth such as a Washington, D.C., officer doing the Nae Nae to break up a fight.

Agencies are also using social media tell stories  about how their work is making their communities safer by sharing pictures of  drug seizures, guns taken off the streets, and key arrests and asking for the  public for assistance locating wanted suspects. 

Humor is also playing a contributing role. On  February 18th, 2016, the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Police Department gained  national and international attention by responding to Kanye West’s pleas for  financial assistance, tweeting “We R hiring,@kanyewest! Starting salary of  $47,920; u could be debt-free by the year 3122! http://phillypolice.com/careers” Their tweet got more than 25,000 retweets and 22,000  likes.

These feel-good “air game” public  relations–focused communications are important, as they humanize departments  and help positively shape public perception. The question then becomes, is  there a role social media can play to help neighborhood-based community  policing officers inform, educate, and activate the residents with whom they  are charged to protect and serve? The answer is yes!

Until a couple of years ago, “ground game”  communications typically involved flyers, posters, and brochures distributed by  patrol and community liaison officers. The challenge with these types of  communications is that they are expensive, require ample time and resources,  and have limited reach and effectiveness. E-mail helped improve outreach but  typically only to a couple of dozen neighbors and, in rare cases, a couple  hundred. Even so, proportional to the size of the entire community, the reach  was minuscule. 

Today, law enforcement access to social media is  typically limited to departments’ public information officers. There are a few  exceptions to this rule, such as the New York City Police Department, where all  precinct commanders have Twitter accounts. This approach, however, leaves out  the patrol and community liaison officers who are walking the beat, attending  community meetings, and problem solving on a daily basis with residents.      How, then, do neighborhood-based community  policing officers engage their residents with social media? The answer is  Nextdoor's free government interface, Nextdoor for Public Agencies. 

If you are not familiar with Nextdoor, it is the  private social network for neighborhoods being used by neighbors in more than  93,000 neighborhoods (covering more than 50 percent of all U.S. neighborhoods).  Nextdoor neighborhood networks are started by residents who want to connect  with their neighbors and talk about the issues that matter most to them. As  such, these are true grassroots communities started by the neighbors  themselves.

Nextdoor for Public Agencies allows  neighborhood-based community policing officers from 800 public safety  departments like the police departments in Los Angeles; St. Louis, Missouri;  Atlanta; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and  Baltimore, Maryland; to join in on the conversation. With access to Nextdoor  for Public Agencies, authorized personnel within a public agency can target  messages and engage with members in one, many, or all of the Nextdoor  neighborhood networks. Messages can also be targeted to geographic areas such  as police precincts. Agencies can use Nextdoor to inform residents about crime  trends, educate them about programs and resources, and encourage them to take  actions and change behaviors to make their neighborhoods safer and stronger.

Using Nextdoor for Public Agencies, patrol and  community service officers are also able to engage the residents who can’t or  don’t attend community meetings. A larger audience means more residents who  understand what is happening in their neighborhoods, more residents who take  action, and more residents having open communication with their local officer. 

With ground-game communications between officers  and residents now possible at various scales, departments have a new tool in  their toolbox to provide better customer service, increase transparency and  trust, and partner with their residents to deter and reduce crime. 

Departments looking to step up their  community-policing social media ground game can learn more about Nextdoor for  Public Agencies by visiting http://nextdoor.com/agency or find me on Twitter at @JosephPorcelli.

Joseph Porcelli    Senior City Strategist and Professional Neighbor  Nextdoor

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COPS Office Photo Contest – May Winner | Stop Hate: Action Steps for Local Communities| Social Media and Neighborhood-Based Policing Officers: A Path Forward | The OK Program: A Collaborative Partnership between Law Enforcement and the African-American Community | Co-Producing Public Safety: Communities, Law Enforcement, and Public Health Researchers Work to Prevent Crime Together | 2016 COPS Office Solicitations

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