Social networking sites like NextDoor and Facebook are changing the way neighborhoods communicate. And when serious crimes arise, they could become a key part of how police catch the perpetrators.
By April Capochino Myers
In 2002, Aaron Martinez was renovating a house in the Webb Park neighborhood that he had not yet moved into when he noticed his tools were missing. The father of three passed out a flier to his new neighbors, asking them to contact him if they saw any suspicious activity near his home.
Neighbors began contacting him with similar stories of theft and other crimes, and he saw an opportunity to create a grassroots neighborhood watch group via email. He knocked on doors, asked neighbors for their email addresses and began sending out crime information others reported to him.
Though Martinez never found out what happened to his tools, his emails now reach nearly 3,000 people. Those contacts, along with information he posts on his blog, help keep residents aware of crime in the neighborhood.
“We are so busy, but with this I can communicate in minutes,” Martinez says. “We are not out catching bad guys, but we are an essential part of the process that police are not utilizing.”
Martinez’s site was especially useful in December 2013 when notifying neighbors of multiple home invasions in and around his neighborhood. A man was breaking into homes and sexually assaulting women. It was a scary time for Baton Rouge residents, and many feared for their safety, diligently checking to make sure doors and windows were locked and sleeping with a can of wasp spray or Mace close by.
Police arrested Vorris Mouton in January 2014 after linking him to DNA evidence in one of the home invasion cases. Police say this incident prompted them to create a more direct line of communication with neighborhoods, and the Homeowner Association Law Enforcement Communication System (HALECS) was formed.
HALECS, a partnership between the Federation of Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations and BRPD, allowed police to quickly alert neighborhood associations of serious crimes and offer safety tips.
“We were not on Facebook at the time, and we were hoping HALECS would give us direct access quickly to a large number of homeowners in Baton Rouge if this type of incident occurred again,” says Baton Rouge Police Department Sgt. Mary Ann Godawa. “Thankfully we have not had any situations like that since.”
BRPD now has its own Facebook page where it posts news releases, upcoming safety classes and other information for Baton Rouge residents.
Following the Mouton case, other local neighborhoods have chosen to utilize open-ended social media sites like Facebook and Nextdoor to alert their residents to crime.
“Nextdoor is an excellent way to get information out, and it fills a void that will never be filled by the city police,” says Nancy Curry, president of the Federation for Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations and president of her neighborhood association, Goodwood Villa. “They don’t have enough feet on the ground. There’s nothing like neighbors reporting suspicious activity to other neighbors.”
Nextdoor is a private social media outlet for neighborhoods. Residents can sign up and choose to see activity in their neighborhood and nearby areas or limit the information to just one neighborhood. Anyone who is part of the neighborhood can comment on the board. Comments are grouped into categories that include crime, lost pets, classified ads and help wanted.
Unlike Martinez’s blog and email list, which he controls, social media sites are open for everyone to post and all residents signed up with Nextdoor have equal access. The comments are unfiltered, so anything is up for discussion.
“It’s really for communicating within your neighborhood about things that are only significant in your neighborhood,” says Steve Buttry, a visiting scholar at LSU Manship School of Mass Communication.
Curry adds, “What you’re not supposed to do is criticize people and use it as a debate forum. If you see something suspicious, you report it. If the other guy doesn’t think it was suspicious, he needs to get over it. We want people to report everything because if they don’t, they might miss reporting something critical.”
This is called the social disorganization theory, says Ed Shihadeh, professor of sociology and criminology at LSU and data analyst for the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination project.
“In a nutshell, it says that this sort of collective action helps organize communities, and one of the things that it does is reduces crime,” Shihadeh says. “It essentially argues that when neighborhoods become organized and ties are strengthened between neighbors and the community, the neighborhood is better able to regulate its environment.”
Looking out for your neighbors to better your neighborhood is not a new idea. The traditional Neighborhood Watch program dates back to 1972 and involved block captains, phone chains and face-to-face communication. Today, that program has evolved via social media, which allows us to report crimes instantly, Shihadeh says.
“Police discover very few problems or crimes on their own,” Shihadeh says. “Almost every offense police find out about comes from the public. Too much information is better than too little. If you don’t deal with the little stuff now, you will deal with the big stuff later.”
Shihadeh also says the police should have a liaison who communicates with the heads of neighborhoods to collect, track and streamline criminal data.
However, local police say limited funds prevent departments from having a liaison.
“A liaison? No. That would be nice, but I doubt it will happen. We’re tight on money right now,” says Capt. Randy Aguillard with the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. “But sites like Nextdoor create more of an awareness for the neighborhood to keep a watch out, which is what we need. Who else can be the eyes and ears when we’re not there?”
Similarly, the Baton Rouge Police Department does not have a liaison to work directly with neighborhoods, but it uses other forms of policing, including a community policing division. Some neighborhoods pay off-duty police officers to provide extra patrols in their areas, too.
“A liaison would be a very desirable position to have, and we would love to have it, but we do not have the budget for that right now,” Godawa says.
While Shihadeh says social media is beneficial to neighborhoods, the downfall is the potential anxiety that access to too much information can cause.
“It’s the dark side of social organization,” he says. “It could increase a fear of crime among the residents. Now you’re hearing about every single time that something occurred in the area, and news of those crimes spreads like shockwaves. You’re essentially experiencing crime over and over and over. It tends to heighten fear of crime and anxiety.”
Some neighborhood leaders agree with Shihadeh’s theory, and while they may use Facebook pages, they prefer to use their neighborhood’s official web pages to disseminate important neighborhood information.
Ellen Elias, block captain chairperson for Greater Oak Hills Subdivision, says a webmaster controls what information is posted on the neighborhood’s website. She is not discouraging using social media but says a filtered site is best for communicating correct information, especially after an incident in her neighborhood last summer.
“Neighbors were finding dead animals mutilated in their yards,” Elias says. “Come to find out it was [caused by] coyotes. And I would have been astounded if that was my pet. But if that information had gotten on Facebook without the confirmation that it was coyotes, and people thought someone was going around mutilating dogs, those owners would have been blaming anyone who had ever said something ugly about their dog.”
Robin Neil, president of the Ogden Park Civic Association says car, garage and shed break-ins are the most common crimes reported in her 195-home neighborhood. And while the Friends of Ogden Park Facebook page was started for the purpose of sharing the Mid City neighborhood’s events and news, most of the posts are not crime-related.
“On occasion someone reports a theft or suspicious car or person wandering the neighborhood, but I am unsure if that ever results in a crime or catching a criminal,” Neil says.
Celeste Robin, administrator for the Kenilworth Civic Association, says while the 800-home neighborhood that spans between Perkins and Highland roads has a Facebook page, she finds that direct email blasts to the neighborhood’s residents has the most effect.
“It reaches them almost immediately,” Robin says. “And it’s easier to consolidate information into email.”
Gary Littlefield, chairman of the Broadmoor Crime, Prevention and Improvement District, says social media is a great way to deliver information—but when posting on sites like Nextdoor and Facebook, people need to use the same thought they would use when verbally delivering a message.
“Social media connects people and keeps everyone together,” Littlefield says. “It is great as long as it’s properly controlled and people are cautious as to what they put out there.”
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