The City of Bakersfield announced today a partnership with Nextdoor.com, the private social network for neighborhoods, to improve citywide and neighbor-to-neighbor communications.
Led by Chief Greg Williamson, this integration with Nextdoor will enable the Bakersfield Police Department to use Nextdoor to build stronger, safer communities with the help of Bakersfield residents. The Bakersfield Police Department and Nextdoor neighborhoods will be able to work together to increase safety and strengthen virtual neighborhood watch.
“Having the ability to easily communicate with residents is extremely vital to, not only maintaining, but increasing safety and reducing crime within our Bakersfield communities,” said Chief Williamson. “With Nextdoor we can help empower neighbors to keep their communities safe and connected and give them the ability to collaborate on virtual neighborhood watch efforts.”
Already Nextdoor has proven to be an essential and well-adopted tool for Bakersfield residents. More than 160 neighborhoods, representing 82% of the City of Bakersfield, have started Nextdoor websites.
Bakersfield police will now be able to post information, such as important news, services, programs, free events, and emergency notifications to Nextdoor websites within the city.
Each Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield PD 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.
BPD joins over 1,600 public agencies across the country who are using Nextdoor to build stronger relationships with their residents.
Those interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website can visit nextdoor.com and enter their address. If residents have questions about their Nextdoor website, please visit help.nextdoor.com.
