Neighbourhood watch – there’s an app for that. As of Nov. 4, a new mobile application, Block Talk, went live in the MD of Foothills. The company is based out of Calgary and allows residents to communicate with one another when something’s happening in the community. “Just think of it as an online neighbourhood for a modern neighbourhood watch,” said Michael Murray, founder and president of Block Talk, which launched in March. It is also available in Okotoks. He began with his home city of Calgary after it took almost 12 hours to hear about an incident that occurred two blocks from his own home – and he was the president of the community association at the time. The app divided the city into geographical areas based on the established neighbourhoods. Users could then sign up to receive notifications when posts were made in any of the areas they’d selected, he said. “It’s in your control which communities you follow,” said Murray. “So you might want to follow where you live, where you work, where you play, where your kids go to school, potentially where your family lives in another area of the municipality or in a city.” Users can choose whether to use their real names, nicknames or online handles with the app, he said. Because the app is open and there is no way to tell whether a user is actually a criminal, Murray included a security feature in the application. If someone makes a post about in an urgent safety or crime category, his or her name will automatically show anonymously as “Block Talk Member,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone putting themselves at risk about talking about the wrong person, the wrong criminal, and all of a sudden have someone knocking on their door in the middle of the night,” said Murray. However, he said it may not be entirely bad to have the offenders using the app, as it could create a “scarecrow effect” – if they see a lot of activity on Block Talk and that people are reporting suspicious activity, it may keep them away, he said. Block Talk should never take the place of calling 911, he said. “The first thing you do is call the police, this app does not replace the police whatsoever,” said Murray. “Call the police then post on the app so your neighbours know.” MD Coun. Suzanne Oel, who is also president of the High Country Rural Crime Watch, said Block Talk is similar to something Priddis-area residents had tried to achieve on their own. “We’ve created a WhatsApp group called ‘Priddis Watch’ and we’ve been helping each other out a lot with that,” said Oel. “We call the RCMP first, but then we let our neighbours know what’s going on. People have joined only if they’re known to each other, and it’s a private group.” That’s the biggest difference Block Talk can make, she said. As a public application, it can help disseminate news quickly to those who need to know what’s happening, even if they live in a different geographical region and aren’t known well to other members. “It’s another opportunity for us to use the community way of sharing information and critical information very quickly to the community,” said Oel.
