Two weeks ago, Seattle Police started a cool new feature to help citizens (and bloggers!) keep up with sirens in their neighborhoods. Tweets by Beat lets anyone check out each SPD beat’s Twitter feed to find out what’s going on nearby. Just type in your address and it will tell you what beat you’re in.
Seattle is divided into five geographic areas, or precincts: North, East, South, West and Southwest. Each precinct contains smaller areas called sectors (17 total in the city). And each sector is divided into three smaller sections, or beats, that individual patrol officers are assigned to. (Check out the Beat Map.)
We just signed up to follow the beats Boy 3 and Nora 2, which cover Phinney Ridge and Greenwood. And now you can do the same. So instead of emailing us to find out why you hear sirens on your street, you can check the Tweets by Beat yourself without having to wait for a reply from us!
