By Stephen Witt
The 70th Precinct has joined the blogosphere, thanks to one of their young community council members. When Jonathan Judge, 21, was elected the council’s recording secretary last June, it was one of his first ideas at the organization’s executive board session. “We discussed the community coming on line more and thought it [blog] would be a good outreach tool to inform the community about public safety issues and inform residents about the community council itself,” said Judge, who was born and raised in the area and attends Brooklyn College. Judge said the intent of the blog is also to inform the community about upcoming activities, and more importantly, to get more people involved with the community council. After several discussions with Council President Ed Powell and Vice President Beverly Kilpatrick, Judge had the blog up and running on October 20. “The community is changing. It’s more tech savvy and internet friendly, and some of the newer residents are communicating through blogs. It’s a natural progression on how to get word out on what’s going on with the community council,” he said. Among the other blogs in the area that Judge noted are ones covering Ditmas Park, Kensington, Victorian Flatbush and the Junction. A lot of these blogs picked up the 70th Precinct’s blog and posted links immediately, said Judge, and since then the blog has had over 1,600 hits. Judge, who maintains the blog, said he posts minutes from the council meetings as well as public safety and crime prevention tips, community events, articles about police officers who display valor and other tidbits about the precinct. The blog also has a link to the official NYPD 70th Precinct profile, and Judge said he is thinking of linking to the crime statistics. The 70th Precinct’s Commanding Officer, Inspector Tom Harris, is very delighted with the blog, said Judge. Judge said that, rather than inundate the blog every day, he gets things up on a need-to-post basis. To log onto the blog, go to www.70pctcc.blogspot .com.
