On June 30, the day after Pride, a cryptic message surfaced on Reddit: "I think I saw a corpse rolling around in a wheelchair at pride and I am so curious to know if anyone else saw this," an alarmed Redditor wrote. The thread disappeared hours later, and although it could have been a troll's macabre joke, it raises questions about community watchdogging in the digital age.
San Francisco-based Nextdoor.com is the antidote to Reddit's toxic anonymity. It bills itself as a private, hyperlocal community forum where members must verify their home addresses before creating an account (addresses aren't made public). Among its listings for used Ikea bookshelves or rooms for rent are sporadic crime bulletins, posted by Nextdoor members and police.
One such bulletin caught the attention of Richmond District police Captain Simon Silverman last month. A Nextdoor member wrote that 15 women had been assaulted in the neighborhood; police knew of only two such incidents. At a community meeting, Silverman cautioned people not to believe everything they read online.
According to Nextdoor spokesperson Jeremie Beebe, 20 percent of the site's conversations are about crime. In September 2014, the site launched a partnership program with law enforcement whereby police can push crime notifications to Nextdoor and read members' responses (police cannot read any other messages on the site). Today, more than 700 police departments in as many cities partner with Nextdoor.
In San Francisco, the Richmond, Central, and Bayview police stations all use the site. Officer Ed Carew of Central Station says he uses it as a public information tool to notify people of potential safety concerns. "On nights when I'm not working, I can check Nextdoor to see what's going on in the neighborhood," he says.
When Central Station joined the site in February, Carew wrote, "Please be aware that Nextdoor is not the appropriate way to request emergency services, police services, report criminal or suspicious activity, file a report, etc." Yet, a cursory scroll dredges up horror stories of muggings and home invasions, car break-ins, and vicious dogs. San Francisco seems to be one felony away from becoming Gotham City.
"Because of the information on Nextdoor, we could ... see a pattern that the police do not see," a Nextdoor member told The Dallas Morning News recently, but members could also create patterns where none exists.
Beebe is aware of such a risk. "Before, unless people saw it on the news, it didn't happen," he says, perhaps unconsciously mimicking the "pics or it didn't happen" meme that adjudicates reality online.
Nextdoor doesn't monitor the posts, although quasi-moderators in each neighborhood manage the threads. And while the site boasts of some crime-solving successes — Beebe mentions a sting Mountain View police conducted to catch a man stealing packages — it's also sometimes a hothouse for rumors and misinformation.
"As with any social media, anybody can post their opinion or exaggerate," Carew says.
It's wise to remember that some crime reports, like Bigfoot, are figments of one's imagination.
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