Valley shop owners join forces online to fight crime

Some Palm Desert shop owners said when the holiday shopping rush slows down, thieves don’t.

“You’re caught off guard. There are less people in the store. Usually shop lifters will wait until there’s a good opportunity to witness their crime,” said an El Paseo merchant.

Palm Desert police encourage merchants and residents to sign up for Nextdoor. It’s a private social network that opens the door for questions, recommendations, safety and crime alerts for and from people in your area.

It’s free. You can sign up on your computer at nextdoor.com or download the app on your smart phone. It also gives daily alerts from police of crime happening within a 5-mile radius of you and keeps everyone in the loop.

“When people commit a crime and hit in a commercial area, especially retail, they’ll hit several stores,” said the shop owner. “It really helps, if something happens here in the store we can notify other businesses. If something happens to other businesses on the street, we’re aware of it.”

The Nextdoor program now extends to alerts for and from the Westfield shopping mall and neighboring businesses on Highway 111.

“It’s great as a community to make sure everyone is safe, businesses are safe and clients are safe.”