The NY Daily News reports: Capt. Kenneth Corey, commander of the 76th Precinct, covering Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, has taken his policing skills to the Internet, e-mailing crime updates and using the Web to dispel Internet rumors.

Corey’s posts, usually following the monthly Precinct Community Council meetings, sometimes take on a small town tone, but also remind residents of big city dangers.

When cops were on the hunt for a burglar, Corey told his readers police apprehended a Peeping Tom – or in police language, a man who “was surreptitiously photographing the occupant of the residence.”

Corey’s digital skills have attracted the notice of Police Department higherups, and other Brooklyn precinct commanders have asked him about creating their own online presence.

Some of the other borough precincts also are harnessing the power of the Internet. The 70th Precinct Community Council, covering Flatbush and Midwood, has a bare-bones blog that mainly serves as the council’s calendar.

In Canarsie’s 69th Precinct, officers send e-mails notifying residents of major crimes.

Corey’s e-mails go a step further – in addition to the crime posts, such as a string of burglaries in Cobble Hill that eventually led to an arrest – he notifies residents about other local issues, such as a warehouse collapse in August that damaged seven parked cars.

His list of recipients has reached about 100, but he noted, “Every time I send it out, I get another handful of people who want to be on it.”

The e-mails also contain monthly crime statistics and tips to avoid things like bicycle theft.

A Park Slope native and now a Staten Island resident, Corey, 41, took over the precinct in January and launched an electronic newsletter in June after making two observations about the district.

Corey sometimes corrects inaccuracies about crimes that he reads online. Last week, a blog reported that pedestrians were hit in a car accident on Columbia St. Corey e-mailed a note that only passengers were hurt.

(Source: NY Daily News)