The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office today announced that it has started using Nextdoor (nextdoor.com), the private social network for neighborhoods, to improve countywide communications by connecting with residents on a hyper-local level.
This integration enables the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office to use Nextdoor to build stronger, safer and more prepared communities with the help of Deschutes County residents. On Nextdoor, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and Nextdoor neighborhoods are able to work together to improve safety related to emergency preparedness, strengthen community engagement, and better prepare for, mitigate and recover from emergency situations.
Nextdoor is popular amongst Deschutes County neighborhoods. More than 20,000 Deschutes County residents are connected and communicating on the social network.
With Nextdoor, Deschutes County residents create private neighborhood websites to share information, including neighborhood public safety issues, community events and activities, local services, and even lost pets. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is able to post information, such as important news, services, programs, free events, and emergency notifications to Nextdoor websites within Deschutes County.
Nextdoor is free. Each Deschutes County 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 Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is not 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.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office joins over 2,400 public agencies across the country that are using Nextdoor for Public Agencies to build stronger relationships with residents.
