NYPD News Is Now In Chinese, Thanks To A New Facebook Page

FLUSHING, QUEENS — The NYPD is boosting its neighborhood policing efforts with a new Facebook page offering updates in Chinese.

The police department will translate news alerts, public safety notices and other updates into Chinese on its new Facebook page NYPDXinWen (纽约市警察局新闻), which officially launched Friday.

NYPDXinWen will focus on police precincts that serve many Chinese speakers, such as the precincts in northeastern Queens, according to a department spokesperson. The page will post videos in multiple Chinese dialects; other content will be in simplified Chinese.

The page will focus on the following police precincts:

• Brooklyn - 61 Precinct, 62 Precinct, 66 Precinct, 68 Precinct, and 72 Precinct
• Queens- 109 Precinct, 110 Precinct, 111 Precinct, 112 Precinct
• Manhattan - 1 Precinct, 5 Precinct and 7 Precinct

The NYPD is launching the Facebook page in an effort to effectively communicate public safety information to Chinese speakers living in the city, the spokesperson said. Chinese is the second most common language spoken by New York City immigrants with limited English abilities, according to the city.

"Not every Chinese person living in NYC speaks, writes or reads English and a lot of Chinese residents rely on the Chinese media for their local news," the NYPD said in a statement.

The NYPD has police officers who speak 14 Chinese dialects, according to the department. The communications officers who will run the account took a language test.