A quick scan of Nextdoor, the hyperlocal social network, shows posts about a broken toilet, a forthcoming neighborhood cleanup, and, at the very top, one titled “Hello from the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Signed by Chief of Police Peter Newsham, the post outlines how D.C. police is partnering with Nextdoor to “build community, improve quality of life, and work together to make your neighborhood safer and stronger.”

Nextdoor, which launched in the U.S. in 2011, has a feature that allows users to forward their crime and safety-related posts to participating law enforcement agencies, which now includes D.C. Newsham’s post clarifies that “MPD will not see your posts unless you use the ‘forward to police’ option. If you choose that option, it will provide you an opportunity to raise nonemergency public safety concerns with police managers assigned to your neighborhood.”

Newsham also warns users to call 911, rather than use Nextdoor, in case of an emergency, because police aren’t monitoring the site at all hours. Nextdoor’s FAQ page uses a post about a stolen package as an example of a nonemergency to forward along to law enforcement.

Steve Wymer, Nextdoor’s vice president of policy, told The Atlantic in 2016 that, nationwide, approximately 10 percent of Nextdoor conversations are about crime and safety (service requests and recommendations are 30 percent, and real estate talk is 20 percent).

And MPD isn’t the first D.C. agency to work directly with Nextdoor. Back in 2018, the D.C. Board of Elections pioneered a partnership with the network to provide residents with information about forthcoming elections to increase voter turnout.

To join Nextdoor—which includes 133 D.C. neighborhoods—the social media platform first verifies a user’s address, making it ostensibly more private than other digital networks. As The Atlantic describes it, “If Twitter is where you fight with strangers, and Facebook is where you vie with friends, then Nextdoor is where you get annoyed with neighbors.” An entire “Best of Nextdoor” Twitter account is dedicated to showcasing some of the more hilarious and ridiculous posts on the network.

But Nextdoor has faced criticism as a tool of racial profiling, especially when people use the platform to report suspicious activity. Back in 2016, Nextdoor rolled out an algorithm that requires posters to be more descriptive in their safety-related posts than just providing a racial characteristic—for instance, describing hair or clothing—but the rollout was plagued with bugs. The site also allows users to flag posts for racial profiling.

One post from Northeast D.C. in July shows how posts about suspicious activity can play out among community members: “Neighbor near Whole Foods says he saw a male in a white shirt and dreadlocks scoping reportedly looking in back doors and carrying a crowbar,” it reads in part. Comments on that post range from “Make no assumptions …sounds no more suspicious than anything else,” to “If you see something, say something! You can always apologize later,” to “It’s always good to be aware … Glad it wasn’t reported to the police before knowing more but I appreciate the info!”

Whitney Shepard, an organizer with Stop Police Terror Project DC, says that the partnership between MPD and Nextdoor is part of a larger trend in which law enforcement teams up with technology companies to surveil people. For instance, Ring, the doorbell-camera company, has teamed up with hundreds of police forces across the country. These companies, she says, “financially profit from the historic and perpetual criminalization of black and poor people. We believe true public safety comes from being in community with our neighbors, rather than surveilling and racially profiling them from behind an app.”

But MPD maintains in a statement that it “joined Nextdoor as another means to engage with our community, build upon existing relationships, and work together to create safer and stronger neighborhoods. With over 117,000 members on the platform, we hope to reach more residents through posts about critical incidents, crime trends, prevention tips, community meetings & events, and by sharing success stories.” MPD emphasized that it can only view forwarded posts and “cannot see the original post where everyone is commenting. We value residents’ privacy and will not be monitoring Nextdoor 24/7, nor will we be using this as a surveillance tool.”

Today, under MPD’s announcement, one user responded to notify police about a homeless encampment alongside a photo—that comment garnered about five responses, four of which were displeased with the user calling police attention to this. One wrote, “how terribly disappointing that people in our community would IMMEDIATELY use this feature to report marginalized people doing nothing to harm anyone.”

In total, Newsham’s post on Nextdoor has more than 150 comments. While at least one person said they would delete the app and another said “this is so NOT IT, MPD,” the majority of commenters replied with something along the lines of “Thanks Chief!”