Police say neighborhood watch programs have declined by up to 50 percent. Now there’s an app called Nextdoor that allows neighbors to interact with one another and law enforcement.
“(In order) to promote neighborhood watch, it needs to be moving forward technologically,” said Stephany Galbreaith, a Meridian Police Department crime prevention specialist. “That’s the only way we can get our neighborhoods to move forward with the initiative of crime prevention. So we’ve been looking for the appropriate app, and this one definitely is a good one for that.”
Residents KBOI 2News spoke with at the training say they hope this takes place of neighborhood watch altogether.
“When we tried to start a neighborhood watch, we didn’t get a lot of activity,” said Victoria Ruggiero-Diaz of Star, who has been using the app for a few months now. “It kind of just faded away because no one wanted the responsibility of people calling them and then no one did.”
Now, you can receive alerts from police, post about lost or stolen items, or discuss problems in your neighborhood all in one place.
Galbreaith says it’s one of the most secure apps she’s seen.
“There’s very limited information on there as far as your personal. It is verified via a post card to you, or your social security number. You’re able to have a sense of community when you know that your neighbors are all verified through the Nextdoor application.”
The app first appeared September 2014 in Kuna, where residents of Deerhorn Subdivision began connecting neighbors after weird things were happening around their homes.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Department and the Meridian Police Department say they will be hosting two more training sessions this year. The next one will be Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, and the last one will be Dec. 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the training center at the Meridian Police Department.
The Nextdoor app is currently available to download for android and iPhone users.