Announcing Nextdoor Polls for Our Public Agency Partners

Over the past few years, more than 1,400 public agencies have turned to Nextdoor for Public Agencies to better connect with their residents and communicate about the things that matter most to their local communities.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our product for both our members and our partners, and saw an opportunity to help public agencies across the country increase transparency and improve community relations. This has been a topic of focus for the White House through their 21st Century Policing Task Force Police Data Initiative, a nationwide effort by public agencies to improve transparency, community trust, and accountability.

Now, in full support of this initiative, our public agency partners can make sure their residents’ voices are heard in a direct and structured way via Nextdoor Polls.

Nextdoor Polls allows any Nextdoor agency partner to poll verified residents of their jurisdictions on topics of importance and analyze the results down to the neighborhood level. With Nextdoor Polls, agencies and residents can now collaborate on important issues, develop city-wide programs of interest, and take actionable steps to make their cities even better places to live.

Over the past three months, 14 police departments and city agencies have piloted Nextdoor Polls to better understand residents’ needs and concerns. Some of these agency partners piloted Nextdoor Polls as part of their participation in the Police Data Initiative and commitment to openness and accountability.

These partners are using their results from Nextdoor Polls to develop better programs for their cities and residents. The findings varied from whether or not residents felt safe in their neighborhoods to initiatives residents wanted their department to focus on. Check out the graphic below for more findings from our agency partners across the country.

This list of participating partners includes:

• Atlanta Police Department
• Austin Police Department
• Dallas Police Department
• Fayetteville Police Department
• Fresno Police Department
• Miami-Dade Police Department
• Mobile Police Department
• Prince George’s County Police Department
• Quincy Police Department
• Sacramento Police Department
• City of San Antonio Development Services Department
• St. Louis Board of Aldermen
• City of Scottsdale
• Voorhees Township Police Department

“Having the ability to easily communicate with residents is imperative to our continued community policing efforts and adds another layer of transparency between our department and our community,” said Art Acevedo, Chief of Police in Austin. “With Nextdoor Polls, we can connect directly with residents, gather their input in a structured way, and work together to make our city an even better place to call home.”

We hope that all of our agency partners will use Nextdoor Polls as another innovative way to not only connect with residents, but create new programs and initiatives that benefit everyone. We’re honored to play a small role in how public agencies communicate with their residents and make a difference in their cities.

If your public agency is interested in joining Nextdoor, contact us here to get started.