Looking out for your neighbors to better your neighborhood is not a new idea. Traditional Neighborhood Watch programs date back to 1972 and involved block captains, phone chains and face-to-face communication. But today, as 225 details in a feature from the new May issue, the program has evolved thanks to social media.
Sites such as NextDoor and Facebook community pages are changing the way neighborhoods communicate. When serious crimes arise, the sites can become a key part of how police catch perpetrators.
Locally, the Federation of Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations and the Baton Rouge Police Department have partnered together for the Homeowner Association Law Enforcement Communication System.
With each form of communication comes pros and cons. Nancy Curry, president of the Federation for Greater Baton Rouge Civic Associations, says NextDoor is “an excellent way to get information out, and it fills a void that will never be filled by city police.”
“There’s nothing like neighbors’ reports [of] suspicious activity to other neighbors,” Curry says.
The flip side to access of information is the anxiety that comes with reports of possible criminal activities, LSU professor of sociology and criminology Ed Shihadeh says.
“Now you’re hearing about every single time that something occurred in the area, and news of those crimes spreads like shockwaves,” he says. “You’re essentially experiencing crime over and over and over.”
