If you read the SPD Blotter, follow @SeattlePD on Twitter or have used SPD’s My Neighborhood crime map, you know it’s easier than ever before to get information online about crime in your neighborhood.
Even with all that information available online, we still get a lot of questions on Twitter from neighbors about sirens in their neighborhoods, and police cars parked at the end of their block. So we’ve come up with a simple way for you to get answers. 
Today, as part of SPD’s 20/20 policing plan, we’re launching Tweets By Beat, allowing you to view police dispatches in each of Seattle’s 51 police beats.
Tweets By Beat works a lot like a police scanner, giving you information about what type of crimes officers are responding to, and where those crimes are happening.
To use Tweets By Beat, visit our website to lookup your police beat and go directly to the beat’s Twitter page. Even if you aren’t a regular Twitter user, you can still view the page and check it as often as you’d like.
There are a few caveats: in order to protect crime victims, officers, and the integrity of crime scenes, calls will appear on the Twitter feeds one hour after a dispatcher sends the call to an officer. The feeds also do not include information about domestic violence calls, sexual assaults, and other certain types of crimes.
Once you’ve spent some time following Tweets By Beat, we want to hear from you.
Tweet us at @SeattlePD or email us at SPDNews@Seattle.gov and let us know what you think.
