The Fresno Police Department has joined forces with the private social network nextdoor.com.
The website helps unite people living in specific neighborhoods. It allows residents to inform each other of the latest news on their street and police can deliver important safety notifications to them as well.
"This is smart policing," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.
Chief Jerry Dyer is excited to take advantage of this virtual neighborhood watch program. His agency can now directly communicate crime alerts with certain groups of residents. Officers will be pushing out messages, even pictures, they should be aware of.
"It may be a SWAT operation or a helicopter hovering above or police officers doing a yard to yard search," said Chief Dyer.
This idea formulated by a San Francisco based company is really catching on.
"We've gone from 176 neighborhoods just two years ago to over 24,000 neighborhoods across the country in every single state," said Sarah Leary, co-founder of nextdoor.com.
Kasie Ferrare has utilized this technology the last six months.
"It's really just united us. We can privately message one another. I've had neighbors say I think I left my garage door open can you go check for me?" explained Kasie Ferrare, a southeast Fresno resident.
We visited Amit Nijhawan at his home as he completed the free registration process on nextdoor.com. It simply requires him to verify his name and address.
"It is a pretty simple, straightforward website setup," said Amit Nijhawan.
Nijhawan believes this can be a beneficial tool for he and his family.
"It kind of gives me a sense of security and sense of safety to what's going on in my neighborhood so I can be well aware of my surroundings and what's happening in my community," said Nijhawan.