Posts tagged ‘community policing’
Neighborhood Watch Uses Social Media to Stay in Touch
A neighborhood watch group in West Valley City, Utah, was recently profiled in the local news. Through emails and Facebook, this neighborhood watch is able to stay informed and keep themselves safe. Check out the video below.
Search your neighborhood crime map at CrimeReports.com
September 3, 2009 at 11:11 am Robert Voccola Leave a comment
20% of Employers Deny Citizens Access to Police through Social Media
According to ScanSafe, 20% of employers are now blocking social networking sites on their company internet. Granted, employers feel that Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and others social media websites can be horrible time wasters; however, they can also be great informational tools, especially if you follow your local government or law enforcement agency through them.
As more law enforcement agencies begin to use social media for critical information, these sites gain a legitimacy that they have not had in the past. Social media information is changing from “I’m eating a ham sandwich” to “Recent string of burglaries in Maplewood: make sure to lock your doors and windows.”
And as these sites begin to be more important sources of real-time information, employers could find themselves at the wrong end of a backlash from citizens and law enforcement who want to give and have access to vital information. For example, besides giving safety reminders, many police agencies will send out traffic information that gives citizens an idea of where accidents have been, so they can avoid them on the drive home. As well, some agencies have sent information through social media about school closings, city emergencies, and other important events that citizens need to know about as soon as possible.
Blocking access to this information could be an increasing concern for employers as more and more people and law enforcement agencies begin to communicate through social media and share legitimately important information.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
500 Fans on Facebook
Yesterday we just passed 500 fans on Facebook. We’ve only had the Facebook page up for a about 8 weeks, so we’re overjoyed that so many people are enthusiastic about their local crime prevention efforts and are using CrimeReports.com.
We want to thank every one of our law enforcement partners across the US and Canada and all the fans that have made our website the #1 crime-mapping website in the world.
Keep up your continued efforts to spread the word about CrimeReports.com, neighborhood watch efforts, and effective law enforcement/citizen communication and partnerships. And, as always, keep coming back here for more information on crime prevention, community involvement, and neighborhood watch.
If you aren’t already a fan, become a fan here.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Los Gatos’ Retailers Organize Against Crime
Retailers in Los Gatos, California, are organizing their efforts to combat an increase in shoplifting, theft, and check fraud. Local retailers are working with police and the city council to organize forums to gather and discuss the issue and solutions. In the mean time, retailers and police are opening lines of communication by creating phone trees and relaying crime reports as quickly as possible.
Just another great example of the ways that police and citizens can work together to combat and reduce crime in their community.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_13034882?nclick_check=1
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Cyber Neighborhood Watch Needed to Combat Online Crime
iKeepSafe, a site dedicated to keeping children safe online and promoting online ethics through education, recently posted an article on the need for an cyber neighborhood watch. The basic idea is that in a neighborhood watch, members of the community look out for one another and notify the police when they see suspicious activity. As well, students at school can be bystanders to bullying or abuse, and they can report the behavior to parents and teachers; however, no such bystander community exists online. That is, when people see questionable content posted online in a blog or on a social media profile, they just ignore it, and don’t direct police to the site.
For example, George Sodini, the shooter in the recent gym attack, posted disturbing messages and rants on his blog for the last nine months. He even alluded to a project he was working on that involved loaded guns. Perhaps, if police had been alerted to the content on Sodini’s blog sooner, this tragedy may have been averted. Of course, alerting police to violent rants on a blog may not prevent a criminal from carrying out his or her plans (and clearly, a person must commit a crime in order to be arrested for anything), but if police knew ahead of time, they may have been able to talk to the person or confront him or her before an attack could be carried out.
iKeepSafe advocates an increased public awareness online and a willingness of more people to watch out for one another by having a cyber neighborhood watch mentality while online, reporting suspicious activity when confronted with it.
Source: http://ikeepsafe.blogspot.com/2009/08/gym-killer-george-sodini-cybersafety.html
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Apartment Managers Work with Police to Curb Crime in the Community
In Jackson, Mississippi, criminals are increasingly targeting local apartment complexes. To fight this growing threat, police have joined with local apartment managers to create a coalition of apartment managers who will meet once a month to discuss suspicious activity and crime prevention strategies.
Chief Lewis believes that a strong neighborhood watch program in the subdivisions has pushed criminals toward apartment complexes where such programs are not as strong. He told apartment managers at the first meetoing of the coalition, “In order for us to have a decrease in crime on your properties, we need you to help us.”
Search your neighborhood crime map at CrimeReports.com
Increased Community Involvement Around the Country
Over the past week or so, there have been a handful of stories about communities that are getting involved with civilian crime watch programs. Some are initiated by the police department—providing increased education about crime prevention and creating new neighborhood watch-type programs, and other are initiated by citizens banding together to take responsibility for their own homes and neighborhoods.
A few of the communities in the news:
Gig Harbor, Washington, is providing more education on citizen crime prevention and block watch programs for citizens.
Urbandale, Iowa, is responding to a rash of recent break-ins and burglaries by creating a new Community Crime Eye program.
Harrisburg, Georgia, are signing a petition to increase their vigilance and decrease crime in their city.
Search your neighborhood crime map at CrimeReports.com
Record Growth in June for CrimeReports.com Indicates Law Enforcement Trend Toward Online Communication
We at CrimeReports are all very happy about our recent growth and our record-breaking month of June. Below is a press release highlighting our recent success and the law enforcement community’s forward-thinking views on sharing crime information with the public:
June represents a record-breaking month for CrimeReports.com, signing new partnerships with 49 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. These new partnerships represent close to a 10 percent growth for the world leader in online crime mapping in the last month. Currently, CrimeReports publishes live crime information for close to 500 law enforcement agencies across North America and is working with more than 50 others that will begin publishing their crimes live within the next 60 days.
CrimeReports’ rapid growth indicates a trend in law enforcement away from traditional weekly crime blotters and toward the use of online communication, including social media, to disseminate crime information more quickly and efficiently. As a result, publishing crime maps and providing crime alerts, like those provided by CrimeReports, is quickly becoming the standard for forward-thinking agencies across North America. “From a customer service perspective, let’s get that online so people can do their own analysis of what’s going on in the neighborhood,” said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, discussing CrimeReports in a recent Boston Herald article.
Although there are other crime-mapping websites, few can boast partnerships with more than a few dozen agencies, whereas CrimeReports is signing up an average of 30 agencies a month. “Our growth has been astounding,” said Greg Whisenant, Founder and CEO of CrimeReports. “We started with one agency just two years ago, so our explosive growth really shows how law enforcement agencies have been hungry for a service like this and have been amazingly forward thinking in adopting it so quickly.”
In addition, CrimeReports’ internal-facing analytics tool, Command Central, is now being used by nearly 50 agencies nationwide and will expand further in the coming months.
Get on the crime map at CrimeReports.com
Stumble It!Houston Police Hand Out Car Safety Report Cards
Apparently, the number one crime in Houston, Texas, is breaking and entering of a car. To combat the problem, H-E-B, a local grocery store chain, and the Houston Police Department have teamed up to provide car theft report cards to car owners.
While customers are parked in an H-E-B parking lot, the Houston Police check the cars and grade them on the likelihood of the car being broken in to. Sadly, most cars fail the test.
The point of the report cards is to get car owners to realize that leaving cell phones, laptops, purses, and other bags and valuable items could leave them open to thieves who see a bag sitting on the passenger seat of a car as an opportunity to make some quick cash.
As a rule, locking your car doors and rolling up your windows does not make your car invulnerable. When you leave your car, if you want to leave valuable items in it, stow them under the seat, in the glove box, or in the trunk. Since breaking into a car is a crime of opportunity, reduce the opportunity by placing items out of sight.
Source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6892951
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The Path to Crime Prevention
Here at the Neighborhood Crime Map, we try and provide as many personal safety and crime prevention resources as we can—especially when they relate to current news items. One of the great resources we rely on is the Prevention Works Blog provided by the National Crime Prevention Council.
Just recently, the good people at Prevention Works posted a great list of tips that you can follow to prevent crime in your home, family, neighborhood, and community. The list covers topics like educating your children and creating a community crime watch organization, as well as writing to local leaders to express your opinions and ideas.
Read the full list here.
Search crime in your neighborhood at CrimeReports.com
