The Thunder Bay police are bringing back community policing, but this time online.
With a $97,000 grant from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the Thunder Bay Police Services will launch Zone Watch, a project executive officer Chris Adams said is like a virtual neighbourhood watch.
Adams outlined the program to the police services board Tuesday morning and said the model is similar to what used to happen in the city with neighbourhood policing where an officer would meet on a regular basis with a committee of citizens to discuss issues in that area.
“This takes it that next step. People are busy. They have lives. They work, but wow, they’re using smartphones – iPhones, Blackberries, Android devices; they’re using the web,” he said.
“They want the access. They want to be able to do it when it’s convenient for them to do it.”
People interested in joining the committees in their neighbourhoods would have to apply and they would discuss issues with police on a secure, private website. The ideas from that site will then be filtered to a new public Thunder Bay police website.
This method will allow police to use social media, but without the security issues they face with sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Adams said there are a lot of issues with those sites that people aren’t aware of.
“Police services are starting to realize that you can have a profound discussion and you can have people starting to name people by name that they think are suspects in incidents or crime. That’s problematic because what that turns into is privacy issues and security issues,’ said Adams.
“As a police service, we’re responsible for our records. When we create things, we have to take full responsibility for the security of them.”
With Zone Watch, the police are trying to create a secure way people can still easily have meaningful conversation just like other social media platforms and be able to do it on their smartphones or other electronic devices.
It almost works like an auxiliary police force, he added.
“Citizens will have the chance to step up, represent their neighbourhoods,” he said. “They’re our eyes and ears on what’s going on out there and what the issues are.”
Adams said they’re hoping this project will help the police identify what the issues are and in what neighbourhoods, so they can work toward better crime prevention.
Zone Watch will also fill a gap in communication between the public and the police.
“A lot of dialogue goes on, but we want to have what I would call constructive conversation with real people that are not anonymous,” said Adams.
And the police will still have discussion in a more traditional social media platform on their public website that Adams said should be up and running at thunderbaypolice.ca in January.
Zone Watch in its entirety should be running by March.
Police services board chairman Joe Virdiramo said he thinks Zone Watch is a good idea and a way to identify which areas in the city need more resources.
“It’s a good way and a real expedient and financial way to deal with issues that may come up from time to time in specific areas of the city,” he said.
