Community Crime Prevention

While we love collaborating face-to-face, we know that it is difficult to attend regular meetings. In order to get more residents involved in preventing crime in Brighton, we encourage you to utilize Nextdoor.

Nextdoor is a social network made up of real people at real addresses. By requiring members to use their real name and verified address, it creates trust and accountability.

Because so many of your neighbors are already likely using Nextdoor, you have access to communicate quickly and easily – and you will be able to reach neighbors who are not yet involved in crime prevention efforts (and who may not be paying attention).

Here are some ways you can use Nextdoor to facilitate neighborhood watch:

• Post messages about property crime trends you may observe, incident-specific information you may know, and crime prevention tips you have learned.
• Post messages to encourage your neighbors to identify and report suspicious behavior and crime to the police.
• Post urgent alerts after you’ve called 911 to communicate about criminally suspicious behaviors you’ve witnessed.

What behaviors does Brighton Police Department consider to be suspicious?

• Someone walking down the street looking into multiple vehicles and/or trying door handles to see if the doors will open.
• Someone taking a package from someone else’s property (keep in mind that sometimes neighbors leave or pick up packages for other neighbors).
• A person who is not your neighbor walking about your neighbor's home and looking into windows, or trying to gain access by forcing open a window or door.
• A person knocking on your door and asking to speak with someone who does not live there and who may also go to other homes knocking on doors. This is a tactic used by people with the intent to burglarize to see if people are home. (Keep in mind that people may also mistakenly go to the wrong home for any number of reasons.)
• Someone claiming to represent a utility company who is either not wearing a uniform, does not produce identification upon request, or does not have a company logo vehicle.
• Someone using binoculars or other devices to peer into your or your neighbors' homes.
• At night, a person sitting inside a vehicle that you do not recognize with the lights off for an extended period of time.
• A pushy salesperson not producing identification upon your request or asking to come into your home.
• A vehicle you do not recognize that is circling multiple times around the neighborhood.
• An unusually high flow of people coming and going from a particular home and visiting for just a couple of minutes. (NOTE: Police prefer that you report this to them, rather than post about it.)
• Feeling you are being followed when walking home or to a neighbor's home, even after you cross the street and back again and the person(s) crosses along with you.

Please remember, Nextdoor's Community Guidelines prohibit racial profiling. Racial profiling includes assuming someone is suspicious because of their race or ethnicity, or giving descriptions of suspects that are so vague as to cast suspicion over an entire race or ethnicity.

For more information about how to communicate about crime on Nextdoor, view the full Nextdoor Virtual Neighborhood Watch Guide.