Security Website Keeps Tulsa Neighbors Informed

There's a new way for neighbors to share information and hopefully stay safer; it's a free, private website that lets neighbors talk about everything from stray pets to crime, and more than 80,000 Tulsa neighbors are using it.

It's called nextdoor.com and every neighbor must verify their home address to make sure they actually live in the neighborhood before they can sign up.

The website is a little different than Facebook neighborhoods sites, because it's private, so you know whoever you're talking to is actually in your neighborhood.

Sam Johnson moved to Tulsa from New York and immediately wanted to get involved in his neighborhood, so he suggested neighbors use nextdoor.com as a way to communicate.

Now, about 180 people from Tulsa's Riverview neighborhood are using the site to share all kinds of information.

"If I get a message on nextdoor directed to me, I know it's about my neighborhood. I know it's local and relevant,” Johnson said.

Johnson used nextdoor to tell his neighborhood about his recent break-in.

He and his wife are remodeling a house and are living about a mile away during the construction with their twin, eight-month-old daughters.

The nanny cam was still in the house and it caught the burglars coming into the couple's nursery and you can hear them going through house.

"I doubt anyone recognizes anyone, but it makes it all the more real; and it's interesting and it makes other people do the same thing and watch out and be more careful,” said Johnson.

He thinks there is great potential for nextdoor, especially if they can get the police, fire departments and city leaders linked in so they can see what the issues are and also communicate directly with the neighborhood.

"I think nextdoor is one of the ways neighborhoods act like neighborhoods and when they do that, it helps everything, property values, safety, helps everything,” Johnson said.

Whatever tool you use, getting people talking and sharing information is the key, because if you don't know about a problem, you can't fix it.