In January, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, or WCSO, joined the Longmont Police Department and more than 20 other law enforcement agencies in Colorado in using Neighbors, a public safety service application developed by the creators of Ring home security devices.
According to a WCSO press release, the Neighbor’s app allows users to share photos, videos and information about local crime and public safety incidents with other residents in their area, as well as local law enforcement agencies. However, WCSO is only able to view information publicly posted to the app by residents living in Weld County if users share content directly with the agency, the press release states.
The inspiration for WCSO to start using Neighbor’s came last fall after Sergeant Aaron Walker installed a Ring camera in his own home and, at the same time, created a Neighbor’s profile for himself. In doing so, he saw how using the app was beneficial from a citizen’s perspective and decided it would be an excellent way for WCSO to reach the community in addition to other social media applications, he said.
“People can post on (Neighbor’s) to bring awareness specific to crime and public safety issues like, for example, ‘This guy broke into my car last night’ or ‘There’s this missing child,’” Sgt. Walker said.
By using the app as a citizen, Sgt. Walker noticed he was able to receive notifications from people in his area about crime events happening at that moment. Because of this, he felt that Neighbor’s would give WCSO “a connection to the community that’s a little bit faster than say Facebook or another social media app,” Walker said.
Upon this realization, Sgt. Walker reached out to Ring and other law enforcement agencies already using Neighbor’s to see how WCSO could get involved. He created a profile on behalf of WCSO which went live in January.
Since then, using Neighbor’s has proved as a useful tool for WCSO to reach the Weld County community and share information about crime trends, prevention and safety tips, communications about ongoing investigations and updates about other relevant public safety incidents, according to the press release.
Another benefit of using the app is that it allows law enforcement agencies to push out requests for information to the public.
“If I have a homicide in an area, I can create a bubble within the system that’ll push information to everyone in that bubble, which is usually about a half mile area, saying ‘Hey, we’re looking for a white truck that was seen in the area between this time and this time,’ and include a description of the truck and the suspects we’re looking for,” Sgt. Walker said. “(Neighbor’s) will send them a push notification to go back in their Ring system and see if their camera caught anything. Then they can share the video with us.”
Recently, pushing out this kind of information via the Neighbor’s app helped WCSO receive details from the community that led to the solving of a high level homicide case, Sgt. Walker stated.
Today, Sgt. Walker, WCSO Intelligence Detective John Tucker and WCSO Public Information Officer Joe Moyland work together to maintain WCSO’s Neighbor’s profile.
Communications and Marketing Manager Robin Ericson and Crime Analyst Matt Lee have been responsible for updating and using the Neighbor’s app on behalf of the Longmont Police Department, or LPD, since the agency started using the app right before the pandemic hit in early 2020, according to Ericson.
While Ericson attributes the Neighbor’s app for being useful in providing “additional eyes and ears (for LPD) when public safety staff is limited,” LPD doesn’t utilize the Neighbor’s account as much as NextDoor, Facebook, Twitter, or its website for communications, she said.
One of the challenges Ericson has observed while using Neighbor’s occurs when app users post a video of and spread awareness about criminal activity happening in their area via Neighbor’s, but never contact the police or file an online report, Ericson said.
Moreover, people often don't equate the footage they have to the possibility it would solve a crime, she added.
Despite the shortcomings that come along with using Neighbor’s per Ericson, “(LPD’s) key to getting information out to the public is based on using multiple outlets and multiple audiences,” she said, “because no one resident utilizes the same resources to get information.”
Neighbor’s users don’t need a Ring device to join the application as it is compatible with other Wi-Fi-enabled security systems besides Ring cameras that can be viewed from a smartphone, such as Google Nest devices. Neighbor’s is free to download and it is available on both Apple and Android smartphones.
According to WCSO’s press release, Neighbor’s, as well as other social media platforms, is not a replacement for 911. Always call 911 for in-progress crimes and emergencies. For more information about Neighbors, visit ring.com/neighbors.
