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Improvements to How Our Members Post about Crime and Safety

Written by Nirav Tolia

Collaboration continues with Neighbors for Racial Justice and the City of Oakland

We created Nextdoor to give neighbors a trusted place to come together and discuss the issues that impact their communities. The vast majority of interactions on Nextdoor are positive, but we recently became aware of a very difficult issue facing neighborhoods today: racial profiling.

There is no room for this kind of behavior on Nextdoor. Simply stated: we consider profiling of any kind to be unacceptable.

In late January, we announced a commitment to end racial profiling on Nextdoor. We initiated a series of product changes, but knew that this was only the beginning. Today, we are taking the next step in our effort.

Over the last few months, we have relied on the guidance of Oakland advocacy group Neighbors for Racial Justice (N4RJ), as well as several representatives from the City of Oakland, including Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington, Council Member Desley Brooks, and multiple members of the city administration. We have also been assisted by the Oakland chapter of 100 Black Men, a nationwide civic organization.

These groups and individuals have been instrumental in developing new features that we are optimistic will make a meaningful difference in addressing racial profiling on Nextdoor.

With their support, we will kick off a series of tests using a new submission form that members will use when posting about a crime or suspicious activity to their neighbors. The form will be live initially in the Bay Area and Baltimore as we learn from the data and refine our approach.

The form was designed to:

  • Educate members about the harms of racial profiling, and more broadly, what constitutes valid criminal and/or suspicious activity
  • Focus members on describing criminal behavior that has occurred against a person and/or a property instead of simply describing individuals:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Gmail

  • Require members to provide a complete and helpful description in those cases when individuals are known to have been involved in a crime:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Gmail

We expect to test additional forms in the coming weeks, and ultimately have every intention to release any improvements to all of our 97,000 neighborhoods across the country.

None of this would be possible without our ongoing collaboration with NR4J, Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington, Council Member Desley Brooks, and 100 Black Men. We would like to express our gratitude for their dedication and unwavering leadership.

Nirav Tolia
Co-Founder and CEO
niravtolia@nextdoor.com

2 Comments

  • Have you encountered censorship from some in charge being used to stop the reports of crime to the community?

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